Putting grass back to arable - Over winter break crop to be grazed

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Have a 16 acre field thats been grass for about 15 years. It was in an arable reversion scheme a while ago but that expired 5 years ago and I now want to bring it back into the arable rotation as of next spring with spring barley being first crop.

Over the coming winter I want to graze it with cattle on a "root" crop.

I could go with a simple rape/stubble turnip mix DD'd into the sprayed of turf in July. But was thinking about adding maybe a few other bits to add diversity and maybe fix some N for the following crop?

What would you add to the mix.....

Vetch
Bersem clover
Oats
Westewolds
????

Location is South coast of UK in Devon, soil is sandy and light, aspect is NW facing and sloped.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Maincrop Turnips with some vetch and berseem as long as it's In by end of July, Vetch is cheap won't add a lot to the cost and puts a lot of Nitrogen back and Berseem won't add a lot to the cost either
Maincrop Turnips will out yield stubble turnips and stay palatable for longer
 
Last edited:

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Where you are I wouldn’t put oats or triticale in unless your sowing in late august/September. A deep till radish is good for soil conditioning so worth a shout.

I put in 150 acre of DSV Betamaxx a few years ago and it was over 1 metre high when we topped it at Christmas and ploughed it in. Saved a pass with a subsoiler and a power Harrow pre beet the soil was that well conditioned. I ran out in the last field and put some triticale in from the field pile, circa 1st September, by late November it was 4-5’ high and in ear, another few weeks the grains would have been perfect for wholecrop - hence why I wouldn’t put oats in, it’ll seed to soon
 

JMTHORNLEY

Member
Location
Glossop
I've just put a small trial plot of Vetch and RC to strip garze with cattle and then sow some big Westereolds into it back end to create another high power mowing ley for two years then take out and put into a wholecrop mix.
The vetch appealed to me as it was cheap and plenty of N fixing power for the following grass crop along with pre established clover, different but worth a go? Maybe do it the other way round and DD some spring barley into it next year and keep the clover feeding the soil and have some ground cover? Could poss even have a second graze in winter with some store lambs?
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
I've just put a small trial plot of Vetch and RC to strip garze with cattle and then sow some big Westereolds into it back end to create another high power mowing ley for two years then take out and put into a wholecrop mix.
The vetch appealed to me as it was cheap and plenty of N fixing power for the following grass crop along with pre established clover, different but worth a go? Maybe do it the other way round and DD some spring barley into it next year and keep the clover feeding the soil and have some ground cover? Could poss even have a second graze in winter with some store lambs?

I like the idea of keeping the clover going in second crop, indeed Ive done that last autumn where I DD'd wheat into a three year old clover ley. The clover is still there doing a great job and the wheat has only had 100kg of N per ha and is as good if not better than the wheat in the next field that has had 200kg.
 

JMTHORNLEY

Member
Location
Glossop
I like the idea of keeping the clover going in second crop, indeed Ive done that last autumn where I DD'd wheat into a three year old clover ley. The clover is still there doing a great job and the wheat has only had 100kg of N per ha and is as good if not better than the wheat in the next field that has had 200kg.
A lot to be said for a 'living' stubble I think. I've been trying to move to a more holistic / soil based system for some years but a lot of our ground suffers terribly and is taking a long time to get back into some sort of health.
Clover seems to be the winning factor at the moment
 

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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