Summer grazing cover/forage crop

[beardface]

Raphno, vetch, triticale and crimson/arrowleaf clover works well as a mix.
Put a bit of that about as a "try this on a bit" for a few locals and it's gone well for them, also chucked some leafy turnip in and didn't tell anyone, made the phone ring as one chap thought it was foxgloves coming up

Fert has ranged from zero to about 125kg/ha DAP depending on where and what it was like, been a tricky season down here for summer and winter crop establishment, especially some of the cultivated stuff has done poorly.
But the multispecies, "something will grow" type of mix seems to shine when it's not a good year and it's even more valuable if you can get those lambs away sooner than later

My thinking is produce a whole load of stuff and rotational graze it through until end September, before wheat crop goes in. As some species die out of the mix due to grazing pressure others then fill out. Aim would be to utilise spring grass, then move ewes and lambs onto it as lambs are increasing forage intake, then wean lambs and leave them on it. Not sure if I'm just dreaming though....

 

[Kiwi Pete]

My thinking is produce a whole load of stuff and rotational graze it through until end September, before wheat crop goes in. As some species die out of the mix due to grazing pressure others then fill out. Aim would be to utilise spring grass, then move ewes and lambs onto it as lambs are increasing forage intake, then wean lambs and leave them on it. Not sure if I'm just dreaming though....

No, it's better than a dream. Even the raphno alone ticks a lot of those, or indeed the leafier brassicas.

Another experiment this year was using various ratios of "cover crop" to "perm pasture" just to see if we could work out the most economic way to take bites out of the weed pressure without going to herbicide cocktails

Not too sure if they even market the raphno in the UK but it comes back, comes back, then you can just vanish it by overgrazing it with your ewes. We also jammed daikon radish in with the raphno on a coastal property with that horrible inert "dirt" type of soil that wants to grow F.A. and it went like stink

keep dreaming, the best fruit comes from those tiny outer branches

 

[neilo]

No, it's better than a dream. Even the raphno alone ticks a lot of those, or indeed the leafier brassicas.

Another experiment this year was using various ratios of "cover crop" to "perm pasture" just to see if we could work out the most economic way to take bites out of the weed pressure without going to herbicide cocktails

Not too sure if they even market the raphno in the UK but it comes back, comes back, then you can just vanish it by overgrazing it with your ewes. We also jammed daikon radish in with the raphno on a coastal property with that horrible inert "dirt" type of soil that wants to grow F.A. and it went like stink

keep dreaming, the best fruit comes from those tiny outer branches

Raphno hasn't arrived here yet as far as I'm aware.

 

[beardface]

No, it's better than a dream. Even the raphno alone ticks a lot of those, or indeed the leafier brassicas.

Another experiment this year was using various ratios of "cover crop" to "perm pasture" just to see if we could work out the most economic way to take bites out of the weed pressure without going to herbicide cocktails

Not too sure if they even market the raphno in the UK but it comes back, comes back, then you can just vanish it by overgrazing it with your ewes. We also jammed daikon radish in with the raphno on a coastal property with that horrible inert "dirt" type of soil that wants to grow F.A. and it went like stink

keep dreaming, the best fruit comes from those tiny outer branches

Is raphno a turnip rape hybrid? There's a new bounce back brassica called skyfall over here. The main reason for needed maximum diversity is soil type.if we got a June monsoon and had little soil cover on something like a straight brassica mix it poach between grazing to much I think. Hence the thoughts on small leaf or creeping annuals. I'm thinking a 15 to 20 species variety eould be best. Say hybrid or cheap perennial ryegrass, rye, oats, barley, hybrid brassica, tillage Radish, fodder Radish, berseem clover, crimson clover, Persian clover, sweet clover, buckwheat etc.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Raphno hasn't arrived here yet as far as I'm aware.

I hope it does, quite a nifty thing to have in the toolbox really. The way it disappears.. probably as close as we get to matching the "frost kill" covercrop thing in a temperate climate.
Hardly ever hear of volunteers, with it.

that maybe why you don't get it, actually! Too good and too easy to be released amongst you lot

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I'm sowing Rebound Hybrid this week , that grows back

 

[beardface]

No, it's better than a dream. Even the raphno alone ticks a lot of those, or indeed the leafier brassicas.

Another experiment this year was using various ratios of "cover crop" to "perm pasture" just to see if we could work out the most economic way to take bites out of the weed pressure without going to herbicide cocktails

Not too sure if they even market the raphno in the UK but it comes back, comes back, then you can just vanish it by overgrazing it with your ewes. We also jammed daikon radish in with the raphno on a coastal property with that horrible inert "dirt" type of soil that wants to grow F.A. and it went like stink

keep dreaming, the best fruit comes from those tiny outer branches

Have you done any high intensity grazing on cover crops?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Have you done any high intensity grazing on cover crops?

Yeah, we gave it a nudge last year with light store cattle. Did wonders for the place, even though we didn't kill out that type of grass it just gave us the extra feed to raise the pressure.
This summer we had little rain and that whole area just grew and grew, where growth has been pretty sketchy to say the least.
Didn't reseed, just what was already there.
Trampled heaps of stuff in but didn't waste half of it or anything silly, put a good layer of spongey litter down.

Kinda tempted to do it again (properly) before we fence the other bit of the place into a large number of absurdly small paddocks and regrass it .

You're definitely on the right track.

 

[beardface]

Yeah, we gave it a nudge last year with light store cattle. Did wonders for the place, even though we didn't kill out that type of grass it just gave us the extra feed to raise the pressure.
This summer we had little rain and that whole area just grew and grew, where growth has been pretty sketchy to say the least.
Didn't reseed, just what was already there.
Trampled heaps of stuff in but didn't waste half of it or anything silly, put a good layer of spongey litter down.

Kinda tempted to do it again (properly) before we fence the other bit of the place into a large number of absurdly small paddocks and regrass it .

You're definitely on the right track.

What was regrowth like? I'm thinking 1 day moves when it's say ankle + high to keep the top down and then lengthen the breaks and increase the area as season goes on so its well eaten down come drilling.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Is raphno a turnip rape hybrid? There's a new bounce back brassica called skyfall over here. The main reason for needed maximum diversity is soil type.if we got a June monsoon and had little soil cover on something like a straight brassica mix it poach between grazing to much I think. Hence the thoughts on small leaf or creeping annuals. I'm thinking a 15 to 20 species variety eould be best. Say hybrid or cheap perennial ryegrass, rye, oats, barley, hybrid brassica, tillage Radish, fodder Radish, berseem clover, crimson clover, Persian clover, sweet clover, buckwheat etc.

Its a Kale Raddish . Have asked the boss to see if he can get me some to try , but unless someone is importing it its probably not licenced

 

[Great In Grass]

Raphno is a PGG Wrightson Seeds product and is owned by DLF.

In the past when enquiring about current PGG Wrightson Seeds products they seem to be a very long way off reaching us if at all!

 

[paul&mandy]

Grass sprayed off, DD turnip/Kale/Radish mixture. Then 12ton to the acre muck. Coming along a treat

 

[beardface]

View attachment 961844
Grass sprayed off, DD turnip/Kale/Radish mixture. Then 12ton to the acre muck. Coming along a treat

When was it drilled?

 

[paul&mandy]

When was it drilled?

around 2 weeks ago, bit slow to get going but flying now its warmer

 

[JD-Kid]

Raphno is a PGG Wrightson Seeds product and is owned by DLF.

In the past when enquiring about current PGG Wrightson Seeds products they seem to be a very long way off reaching us if at all!

here it's 280 kiwi a ha for the seed way above price for kales etc etc think supplies better now a few years ago was very hard to get

 

[JD-Kid]

Liver damage? Do you know what fagopyrism is? Its skin hypersensitivity a form of sunburn.

I not heard of one instance from any one of my customers and that is many acres!

it grows well in the dry and thats why had problems here with it as made up a higher % of the diet other things did not grow in mix

 

[Great In Grass]

it grows well in the dry and thats why had problems here with it as made up a higher % of the diet other things did not grow in mix

Thanks for the explanation, therefore a small inclusion rate won't cause a problem as my customers have found.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

What was regrowth like? I'm thinking 1 day moves when it's say ankle + high to keep the top down and then lengthen the breaks and increase the area as season goes on so its well eaten down come drilling.

Regrowth of the crop was virtually nil . We grazed it late, which meant a lot of the oats etc were already haying off,, and we scalped it, ie about a 100 day rotation through it

funny though because there are still oats and radish 12 months on, poking up through the pp.

Was pretty much "a failure" because we just bared it off and drilled, then the next week we got 18 inches of rain on it, so the grass did what grass does and we saw none of the buckwheat or phacelia as a consequence of the competition