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Sowing peas...!!
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yeah, at times I do..
I also don't, quite a lot
Who needs sleep when theres TFF to look at... i know that feeling!Yeah, at times I do..
I also don't, quite a lot
JD-Kid
Member
- Location
- Akaroa.. New Zealand
yep do tend to see some regrowth on turf with roto spike another pass about now would just about kill it all
Bit of a progress report for you guys.
Peas are coming up, luckily I left plenty of turfiness as the pigeon population are cleaning up those left on the surface, which seems to be distracting the barstewards from picking at the emergers (getting cramp from crossing these fingers!)
And, as you can see in the bottom picture, the grass is slowly making a comeback after it's shock. Pretty even across the paddock really.
So, the sowing method has worked
Now to keep the birds away. The dog is getting quite a taste for plucked pigeon, they are like flies, I'm sure they hide behind picture frames or some sh!t.
Have nailed about 40, each day there is another 6 or 8 up here.
Hopefully in a week we have some proper leaves to photograph, weather is much less settled than it has been, which should work in their favour.
thats were i think the raddish would work one pass sow then come back in 4-6 weeks later and chew up cover crop and regowth
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yes, had noticed you're a bit of a nocturnal beast too...
...you training to be a local??
Something about your posts suggests,
Well, anyway, I have been doing an awful lot of shooting with my wee 20 benelli and having a
ton of fun, pigeons are smart birds but it's saving the crop. 
Yep
dead right, getting a nice tinge of grass regrowth too but not as much as I thought - bit of dry knocked it perfectly
So still hopeful it will work as a free underlay.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Would be worth a shot I reckon.
Have been doing a bit of reading today on them, been sitting under a brown blanket in the middle of that very paddock reading about radishes and stuff
This 'farming' lark
Those nice cleancrop leafy turnips from PGG and radishes as a one pass multi-graze is looking ok
And maybe some grazing triticale and red clover for another bit, and have a bit of a head to head
see what I reckon of two break crops
Have a 6 month old daughter so sleep is often interupted.... her mother really isnt good at no sleep so life is much easier if i get up myselfYes, had noticed you're a bit of a nocturnal beast too...
...you training to be a local??
Something about your posts suggests,
Well, anyway, I have been doing an awful lot of shooting with my wee 20 benelli and having a
Yep
So still hopeful it will work as a free underlay.
Dont know about training to he a local but id love to visit one day. Not for a long time though probably when said daughter is old enough to hold the fort
Seen dad and lots of other places ive worked struggle to do things the hard way because "thats proper farming"
knew there had to be an easier way to do things than struggle to do it then have to spend any profit paying someine else for help to do things the hard way its a crazy system people have up here The answers to a lot of our problems here in the uk have already been faced and solved around the world we just need to tweak them a bit to work here. Not everyone is open minded enough to see that and most are way too stubborn to admit they arent doing things the best way so keep doing things the hard way
Dad is a little (or a lot) like that but hes slowly getting better and coming around to different ways of thinking. Ill get there eventually
or get him to retire
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
All and any TFF crew welcome hereHave a 6 month old daughter so sleep is often interupted.... her mother really isnt good at no sleep so life is much easier if i get up myself
Dont know about training to he a local but id love to visit one day. Not for a long time though probably when said daughter is old enough to hold the fort
Seen dad and lots of other places ive worked struggle to do things the hard way because "thats proper farming"
The answers to a lot of our problems here in the uk have already been faced and solved around the world we just need to tweak them a bit to work here. Not everyone is open minded enough to see that and most are way too stubborn to admit they arent doing things the best way so keep doing things the hard way
Dad is a little (or a lot) like that but hes slowly getting better and coming around to different ways of thinking. Ill get there eventually
Door is always open.
It's not often flashed up for visitors though.
Have tried "tidy" but our farm is "sustainable"
Inside the house is about the same
Hope 'mother gets well soon'
Btw your turf underlay should work great. Ingot a friend to "plough" a field for barley years afo and it was the worst ploughing job i or anyone else had ever seen. I could have done better wit a loader bucket blindfolded and drunk and im not exaggeraring. It was full of turf and the barley looked like it had been drilled into grass. The barlet grew well but full of grass and the straw was half hay. Lucky it was very hot when we combined it or it would have been wholecrop. Peas might smothr a bit more than barley though. I have pictures somewere but couldbt find any now.
I might well hold you to that one day id love t see your place and how you do stuff
Your place sounds like mine tidy is overrated anyway i can never find anything ehen everywere is tidy
Mother is much better now ive decided its easier to be tired i cant complain she did 5 months breastfeesing on her own. Gave me a newfound admiration for all my ewes and cows they never told me how hard it is
Your place sounds like mine tidy is overrated anyway i can never find anything ehen everywere is tidy
Mother is much better now ive decided its easier to be tired i cant complain she did 5 months breastfeesing on her own. Gave me a newfound admiration for all my ewes and cows they never told me how hard it is
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Here's hoping.. I really only want the grass as a bit more cover when I mow it off, as the thistledown around here is like farmer Roy's cotton fields - just about pick it out of the air with a baler
I have the odd patch like that its been too windy to spray and was too wet to top tem beforw they seeded. All really old PP though so shouldnt be too bad. The rain stopped any seed blowing far so most fell round the patches anyway. Will get the sprayee out next year. Or breed sheep thar will ear them they would be the holy grail of welsh sheep farming
Need pictures of your peas later on too so i can see how it works and maybe steal your ieea in future
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
One of the articles I read on pea silage suggested that you mow it at 10cm or above to prevent ground contamination - which was the other part of using the existing grasses - unsure what happens to all the nitrogen if you don't have something there to catch it, and apparently browntop doesn't compete so well if you give it all a whack of N
Have quite an even strike for such brutally agricultural method, even that corner by the tanks has lots of them popping through. It didn't grow much grass in that corner.
Have quite an even strike for such brutally agricultural method, even that corner by the tanks has lots of them popping through. It didn't grow much grass in that corner.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Will know more in a week or 2... early days yet!I have the odd patch like that its been too windy to spray and was too wet to top tem beforw they seeded. All really old PP though so shouldnt be too bad. The rain stopped any seed blowing far so most fell round the patches anyway. Will get the sprayee out next year. Or breed sheep thar will ear them they would be the holy grail of welsh sheep farming
Need pictures of your peas later on too so i can see how it works and maybe steal your ieea in future
The ducks know it's not hunting season!
I was thinking this paddock may actually end up with the corners blocked off and put a herb and tree-lucerne area in the top two corners, for something different.
Those are elders up in the far corner from the gate, but most have been pushed over to rot down.
Sort of coincidental it came up in The Ruminant's thread about stuff stock like to eat, but I want to see how 'herbal corners' can improve my farm.
Have some sunflowers chicory, lotus etc and tree lucerne that likes a longer recovery behind a "taranaki gate" and just let stock in every now and then.
Will help convince my neighbours I'm a loony
Herbal corners are a great idea. I often think awkward corners, wet patches or steep bits would be better planted to trees for shelter. Herb corners are another good idea for those parts. Id never thought much about trees as feed until that thread but definetly worth lookong at in more detail. Especially if there is an evergreen i could cut down in deep snow
JD-Kid
Member
- Location
- Akaroa.. New Zealand
yep rough areas better on some thing perm be it trees or witch brew corners for stock
can waste so much time and money trying to convert areas that are not realy suited to flash grasses or strange areas that are hard to work
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
My thoughts exactly
Rather than try to level it out and bury all the trees, seems to make more sense to knock in a couple of posts and grow all the different stuff I want to trial in a garden-type area... make a feature of these bits
Pretend I want them there
Could try to slot herbs into all the pastures but to be fair it grows pretty good tucker as is
will cross those bridges in time
JD-Kid
Member
- Location
- Akaroa.. New Zealand
and the peas look like ???
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I think I can safely say a few beat the pigeons. Got 106 in total.
But, they seem to have lost interest in being peppered with shot.
Peas just need some drink and they'll be away, really.
Our soil is under 30% field capacity which is quite uncommon for this time of year, mimicking the UK spring as I suspected it might... hopefully these should just go nuts.