Other Companion Crops

[Hartwig]

100kg/ha of undressed winter oats and the same of peas were drilled with a grain and fertiliser vaderstad box drill in late April. No fertiliser or ag-chem was applied until it had 3lt/ha pre harvest. Yield was 6.2t/ha and the resulting sample has 75% oats, 25% peas by weight.

Interesting !
Which yields would you have expected with pure oats and pure peas as "proper farming" .... I mean with the usual inputs to get heigh yield - just to get a feeling.
Was just thinking about the same the last weeks or so, but don`t think I have the balls for it yet...... What did you do with the mix after combining ??

 

[SilliamWhale]

I grew peas and oats with the intension of selling to local dairy or beef farmer. I could not find a buyer for one field so I ended up combining it.

The field was drilled following failed osr and received no additional n other than the remnants of 50kg N/ha the osr had had to try and revive it in late Feb. 100kg/ha of undressed winter oats and the same of peas were drilled with a grain and fertiliser vaderstad box drill in late April. No fertiliser or ag-chem was applied until it had 3lt/ha pre harvest. Yield was 6.2t/ha and the resulting sample has 75% oats, 25% peas by weight. Some of the peas had shed due to delayed harvesting.

I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, The oats supported the peas well and I have now got wheat planted with peas that shed as a companion crop.

do you think you will sell them now? I'd like to try and field like this but really will be looking to sell the product. What are they worth and who will use them?

 

[DRC]

What about spring wheat and spring beans? Companion cropping must be the way forward for reducing inputs whilst maintaining yield!

How do you deal with weeds, as I don't think there's anything you can spray with that won't kill one or the other.
There's usually a reason why a crop is grown on its own!

 

[Baling Hay]

How do you deal with weeds, as I don't think there's anything you can spray with that won't kill one or the other.
There's usually a reason why a crop is grown on its own!

I suspect if you sprayed off with roundup after drilling in early April you shouldn't have too many issues with weeds. I bet a companion crop suppresses weeds much more than a single crop.

 

[Wheatland]

Interesting !
Which yields would you have expected with pure oats and pure peas as "proper farming" .... I mean with the usual inputs to get heigh yield - just to get a feeling.
Was just thinking about the same the last weeks or so, but don`t think I have the balls for it yet...... What did you do with the mix after combining ??

Oats grown conventionally would usually do 7-8t/ha and peas 3-5t/ha. The oats I grew were winter oats planted in April which is why they took ages to ripen and some peas had shed by then. Maybe a spring oat would have been better? I have got a local sheep farmer interested in the oat/pea blend to feed whole.

 

[Hartwig]

Just made my calculation, sorry - all in EUR as that`s what I`m thinking in :

6,2 to/ha with 75% oats at 175 EUR/to and 25% peas at 230 EUR/to come to a total of 1171 EUR/ha and only costs of 50 N which is about 30 EUR leave 1140 EUR/ha.

If you grow pure crops, 7,5 to/ha oats are 1313 EUR, need 60 EUR nitrogen and 60 EUR on sprays, so 1193 EUR/ha left x 0,75 is 895 EUR/ha plus the peas at 4 to/ha are 920 EUR, need sprays at 90 EUR, so 830 EUR/ha left x 0,25 is 208 EUR/ha - 208+895= 1103 EUR/ha.

So that is pretty much the same, but in the companion cropping no chemicals needed, probably a no-brainer as you drill it and come back with combine next time !??!! Only needs a good use of the blend which needs animals to feed it to.

@ Wheatland : how was the weed control without any spray, was it clean enough to have it harvested without glyphosate if the oats where ripe at the same time with the peas ??

 

[Wheatland]

@Hartwig it was fairly clean apart from some of the preceding osr survived discing and then drilling and rolling . The field had been osr but it was decided that there weren't sufficient plant numbers to take to harvest so the pea/oats were established. A few volunteer osr plants wouldn't have mattered if the crop was cut for silage.
Apart from that the roundup was to quicken ripening.

It struck me that for a mixed or mainly livestock farm, it has great potential, in a rotation with stubble turnips, grass and maize