Spring Triticale & Vetch Whole crop

[Hesstondriver]

looking at options for a bulky Spring drilled, cutting crop to be baled , thats not grass! trying to break the grass cycle in one block of land .

(although i did consider adding a splash of westerwolds to the mix?)

any one done this as arable silage mix ? thoughts / opinions - it will be cut as arable silage and not left until the grain will cause rat issues

 

[M-J-G]

I've wondered about something based on peas, since they fix N and are good protein.

I don't use wholecrop style silage, mainly because of the expense of sowing every year, bit one year I grew combinable peas, and sown in April they were about over 4ft tall by July, with zero N applied, the land was told strong coming out of grass and they weren't easily combined but it did make me wonder if they'd be a good mix with a fast growing cereal for silage.

None of this is based me trying it as a wholcrop, but with the last N prices starting with a 9, I'd be prone to leaning towards something that takes the free N from the air.

 

[Al R]

Grown plenty of spring triticale but almost always took it through to combining, huge consistent straw yields (2.5t/acre) grain did 3-3.5t/acre with 1 less N application compared to spring wheat. I did give it an extra fungicide though. I sold 20 acres for wholecrop to help a neighbour once to help them out and it did 14.5t/acre at cheesy stage. If your going to grow some and combine other crops anyway leave a section not wholecropped so you can save the seed. I used to sow a lot of spring triticale in late August early September and it would be 2-3’ high end of November and would’ve made good wholecrop/arable silage at that stage

 

[Dog Bowl]

Grow a spring barley and forage pea. Search 'Western seeds' online and its one of their arable silage mixes. Certainly wont need any inputs and will provide a decent tonnage of bulk from a single cut.

 

[Sid]

Grow a spring barley and forage pea. Search 'Western seeds' online and its one of their arable silage mixes. Certainly want need any inputs and will provide a decent tonnage of bulk from a single cut.

Agree on the barley.

Trit can be quite coarse in the straw less digestible than barley.

Vetches can give a massive bulk , be aware if undersown.

Peas, barley and vetch is good mix imho

 

[Ben B]

Bloke near me did a few blocks (trit or oats not sure) not sure how it analyses or tonnes but looked good. Their into doing thing "properly".

 

[Hesstondriver]

Agree on the barley.

Trit can be quite coarse in the straw less digestible than barley.

Vetches can give a massive bulk , be aware if undersown.

Peas, barley and vetch is good mix imho

sorry , be aware of 'what' if undersown ?

 

[Hesstondriver]

Grow a spring barley and forage pea. Search 'Western seeds' online and its one of their arable silage mixes. Certainly wont need any inputs and will provide a decent tonnage of bulk from a single cut.

this was my initial thought, how to peas mow ?

 

[Dog Bowl]

this was my initial thought, how to peas mow ?

Fine to cut. The forage peas are a different beast to combining peas. As long as you take them early (flowering I think) they will still be stood fine along with the barley. If you leave the forage pea too long before cutting I think it then has a knack of falling over and dragging all the barley with it making cutting a nightmare.

 

[Sid]

sorry , be aware of 'what' if undersown ?

Getting too thick, lodging and smothering out the grass/clover under sown.

Seen patches in some fields where it has happened.

Seed rate will need to be reduced to circ 50kg/acre

 

[Hesstondriver]

Getting too thick, lodging and smothering out the grass/clover under sown.

Seen patches in some fields where it has happened.

Seed rate will need to be reduced to circ 50kg/acre

Right i understand thank you