Sowing peas...!!

[FonterraFarmer]

Cracking bit of kit.... guess what this one cost him?
It has all the boxes ticked but.... $225k or so, I think he said... he can tell a tallish tale though.
Fusion 3+ is around $170 though, a bit more buying power over here as they are more common over here.
I was shocked, a serious investment

$225k, I could buy 2 acres in the Waikato for that!
(If @FonterraFarmer was selling, of course)

Road frontage here would be $400-425k for 5000m2 &off road about 325-350k, personally I could do that and better with a decent view, so I could do it at mates rates of $450k plus, Personally I think the councils idea and implementations of subdivisions is a pansy of an idea

 

[JD-Kid]

ummmm depends on alot of things as to hitting paddocks again with rotospike do tend to fine less weeds after even one pass guess whole lot chomped up
3-4 weeks would be good get a strike of weeds and then turn them under
do find ripping in dryer areas take a few months to fill up so best done the autrum before or a year before tilling wetter areas less time i guess
or rip and till as soon as and compact the top layer as soon as you can to stop any water loss

 

[Kiwi Pete]

looks like it's ensiled ok, smell is something else,

And the nitrogen seems to have corrected what's left of the grass - only had 5.8mm of rain on it since it was mown, almost 20 days now, and out with my eyeballs I'd hazard 90% of it is perennial ryegrass.
Found some poa pratensis and a few weeds, chickweed and shepherd's purse, but from where I sit it was a success on a fairly average year.
It's dry here

High 20s from 9 til 9, only dew keeping it afloat.

Next experiment, because this one worked to my liking, is to do a similar Min-Till on the next paddock but with a cool season mix.

Mix is leftover peas, triticale, oats, leafy turnips, kale, and plantain.
Not so worried about grass in here, so I burnt the grass off (to the best of my ability without round-upping it) and looks like rain coming later this week so I'll get it done before.
3.8 acres in here and some silly, poor growing, points down the back I think I mentioned earlier on, be 7 acres all up.
Just going to roll it down before I sow the seed, very fluffy turfy stuff after rotospike and heavy harrows, now let us pray

 

[JD-Kid]

View attachment 621306 looks like it's ensiled ok, smell is something else, View attachment 621308
And the nitrogen seems to have corrected what's left of the grass - only had 1.8mm of rain on it since it was mown, almost 20 days now, and out with my eyeballs I'd hazard 90% of it is perennial ryegrass.
Found some poa pratensis and a few weeds, chickweed and shepherd's purse, but from where I sit it was a success on a fairly average year.
It's dry here View attachment 621310
High 20s from 9 til 9, only dew keeping it afloat.

Next experiment, because this one worked to my liking, is to do a similar Min-Till on the next paddock but with a cool season mix.View attachment 621312
Mix is leftover peas, triticale, oats, leafy turnips, kale, and plantain.
Not so worried about grass in here, so I burnt the grass off (to the best of my ability without round-upping it) and looks like rain coming later this week so I'll get it done before.
3.8 acres in here and some silly, poor growing, points down the back I think I mentioned earlier on, be 7 acres all up.
Just going to roll it down before I sow the seed, very fluffy turfy stuff after rotospike and heavy harrows, now let us pray

had a few paddocks here rotospiked were very fluffy and were not rolled before roller drilling only head lands come up needed more rolling

 

[hendrebc]

Was thinking about yur clear wrap yesterday and how it would look. Mut be an interesting thing to watch.
Hope you get some rain now
After sowing of course

 

[Kiwi Pete]

had a few paddocks here rotospiked were very fluffy and were not rolled before roller drilling only head lands come up needed more rolling

Yeah I was looking at it this morning thinking it would be a disaster to sow on, sure the big seeds would strike but perhaps not the little ones, rolling is pretty cheap and will make drilling a nicer pass.

Did you get some rain up there JD?
Never got this far south

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Was thinking about yur clear wrap yesterday and how it would look. Mut be an interesting thing to watch.
Hope you get some rain now
After sowing of course

Still steamy in there but the colour began to change day 8 and by day 12 it's no longer green
About the time they stopped farting and the swelling went down, so it takes 8 or so days for the microbes to use the air in a bale.
They were well blown up and lots of gas escaping, was tempted to stab and patch them.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Still steamy in there but the colour began to change day 8 and by day 12 it's no longer green
About the time they stopped farting and the swelling went down, so it takes 8 or so days for the microbes to use the air in a bale.
They were well blown up and lots of gas escaping, was tempted to stab and patch them.

Has anyone ever seen proper research into the stages and timing of fermentation of different crop silages?

Also clamp vs wrapped.

It could be interesting.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Has anyone ever seen proper research into the stages and timing of fermentation of different crop silages?

Also clamp vs wrapped.

It could be interesting.

Only marketing guff, which always states such and such is better.
It depends on many many variables but temperature and compaction, forage sugars proteins and pH are the obvious ones.
Definitely nothing conclusive other than temperature must be reasonable for quick stabilisation, which is why warmer countries seem to favour lighter coloured wraps/sheets perhaps?

 

[hendrebc]

Only marketing guff, which always states such and such is better.
It depends on many many variables but temperature and compaction, forage sugars proteins and pH are the obvious ones.
Definitely nothing conclusive other than temperature must be reasonable for quick stabilisation, which is why warmer countries seem to favour lighter coloured wraps/sheets perhaps?

Ive always found black wrap to be better than the light green coloured one we simetimes use when there isnt any balck left in the local farm shop. Dont know why though

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Ive always found black wrap to be better than the light green coloured one we simetimes use when there isnt any black left in the local farm shop. Dont know why though

I'd hazard a guess that one or 2 percent of bales are wrapped in black film down here.
Mostly shades of green from "obnoxious mint" through to more natural greens.
Some white - many of the premium films are in white, which is often used for stalky crops like lucerne and wholecrop barley etc.
Then you have the array of novelty colours for various charities (not sure if you have that in the UK or not) yellow, blue for prostate cancer, pink for breast cancer etc, and $20 per roll or something goes to that charity.

Silage sheets are almost all white on the topside, black underneath, one of the big areas of difference I notice on here is all the black bales - to keep the corvids off??

I do assume that black gets too hot down here and degrades in the higher UV, or kills the microbes, only guessing as to its lack of popularity

 

[JD-Kid]

Did you get some rain up there JD?
Never got this far south

got 4 inchs in 8 days so kinda handy rain
paddocks that were only growing in headlands strikeing in other areas so not a total write off
and burnt off paddocks getting a bit of a grean tinge on them
older brown top paddocks showing not a lot of sign some annuals strikeing bit of barley grass etc

 

[Philip Watkins]

.... one of the big areas of difference I notice on here is all the black bales - to keep the corvids off??

......

No it doesn't.

 

[Farmer Roy]

I'd hazard a guess that one or 2 percent of bales are wrapped in black film down here.
Mostly shades of green from "obnoxious mint" through to more natural greens.
Some white - many of the premium films are in white, which is often used for stalky crops like lucerne and wholecrop barley etc.
Then you have the array of novelty colours for various charities (not sure if you have that in the UK or not) yellow, blue for prostate cancer, pink for breast cancer etc, and $20 per roll or something goes to that charity.

Silage sheets are almost all white on the topside, black underneath, one of the big areas of difference I notice on here is all the black bales - to keep the corvids off??

I do assume that black gets too hot down here and degrades in the higher UV, or kills the microbes, only guessing as to its lack of popularity

NEVER seen black wrap here . . .
nearly all green

 

[Bury the Trash]

They are good for scanning, but you do tend to miss details on a fairly regular basis...

a lot of young people seem to do that these days.

 

[Bury the Trash]

NEVER seen black wrap here . . .
nearly all green

black would get too hot at times

 

[Kiwi Pete]

No it doesn't.

Massive gull damage in some areas - often inland areas.
They love to follow tractors of course, then perch up looking for slugs

 

[hendrebc]

I'd hazard a guess that one or 2 percent of bales are wrapped in black film down here.
Mostly shades of green from "obnoxious mint" through to more natural greens.
Some white - many of the premium films are in white, which is often used for stalky crops like lucerne and wholecrop barley etc.
Then you have the array of novelty colours for various charities (not sure if you have that in the UK or not) yellow, blue for prostate cancer, pink for breast cancer etc, and $20 per roll or something goes to that charity.

Silage sheets are almost all white on the topside, black underneath, one of the big areas of difference I notice on here is all the black bales - to keep the corvids off??

I do assume that black gets too hot down here and degrades in the higher UV, or kills the microbes, only guessing as to its lack of popularity

I dont know why its mostly all black here see light green sometimes and dark green in national parks because it blends on better. Sometimes see pink for breasr cancer but its really hard to get hold of anf seen purple or blue advertised for prostste cancer but never seen any for sale or any bales.
Why its mostly black here i dont know. Maybe its like everything else here weve always used black so well keep using black

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Sorry to let this thread die... been a funny few weeks...
We had about 10mm of rain in January and things were looking very parched, I didn't dare overseed the pea paddock as it was bound to fail.
Then, the weather remembered us a fortnight back, and it all took off like it does, so yesterday I finished seeding some IRG / turnips for a neighbour and thought I could get onto this one saved hauling the aerator on and off and rain was forecast anyway.

Fairly broad seed mix for a mid term overseed:
couple of kilos of chicory and plantain, 4 kilos of red, 4 kilos of white, and 3 kg of IRG for winter cover. Will see how it goes, hopefully there will be plenty of summer quality for the stock - chicory for the lambs and plantain for the cattle, and 8kilos of clover should feed things well

the old pasture is getting plenty of N from the pea's good work at fixing, it has never had that "fed look" as it has now.

So, gave it a gentle spiking, and let the cattle chase me around, then moved them off again. Hopefully if they hoovered up any seed in the process they will deposit it here:

(I put 2.9 hectares of seed on 2.2ha, in case of them licking some off the grass, it will be interesting to see what pops up where in a couple of months)
The paddock has had 3 good grazings since I took the peas off, shaved it each time to help it thicken up.
Now to let it recover, may take the top off it again if need be

Pretty much closes the chapter on this experiment, I'll be back with pictures if things grow, if not then....

Roughly sowed peas at the start of October, cut and baled end of December, and this is March, 8 bales per acre off it and total cost til this point is about £100 per acre in proper money.

 

[ploughman1963]

Has anyone ever seen proper research into the stages and timing of fermentation of different crop silages?

Also clamp vs wrapped.

It could be interesting.

Chap over here called Dave Davies (Dave Silage) has done a lot of work with AHDB on researching silage fermentation processes - especially bales. Try googling his reports