Summer Kale

[DairyNerd]

Trying to cheer myself up with thoughts of cows grazing a forage crop in the sunshine.

Which varieties are recommended? What is expected DM yield per hectare?

Want to graze from first few weeks of July so was thinking to put in late April/early May. Thinking full cultivation to put in as I have a load of FYM to incorporate then for grass reseed just go over it with the power harrow and Einbock the grass seed on in Autumn. Any thoughts?

 

[vantage]

sunshine

Rain here for the foreseeable, but sounds like a plan!

 

[Kiss]

Not sure if it was the year but I’m quite disappointed with the weed burden after doing this last year. We didn’t spray again before the grass however

 

[DairyNerd]

Rain here for the foreseeable, but sounds like a plan!

Same here, loads yesterday afternoon. I have 12 round bales left....

 

[DairyNerd]

Not sure if it was the year but I’m quite disappointed with the weed burden after doing this last year. We didn’t spray again before the grass however

We did two reseeds last spring and one last autumn and the docks that came up in both were phenomenal. One was after Stubble turnips. Sprayed them all which has done 70% of the work but will need spraying again once it dries up now. A lot of our neighbours were the same. I don't glyphosate before ploughing but we didn't spray early enough once the grass was up, partly due to the weather and a pretty relaxed contractor.

 

[som farmer]

before we altered our system, due to the succession of dry summers, we were growing 60 acres of forage rape, to feed the cows through the summer. Use to drill fortnightly to begin with, the first lot, would be emerging now, 2 acres, and cows were fed 1 feed of rape, everyday through the summer, an expensive way to feed cows. Always used to grow 5 acres, to feed july/aug, when it dried out, but that amount was ridiculous.

we found hybrid forage rape, Redstart suited us, easy to grow, and cheap to buy. Weed control can be a problem, fat hen was rampant, difficult to spray out, if things went 'wrong', we could be feeding 5ft high fat hen, with 12in rape beneath it !

cows would happily eat the seed heads, coinciding with high water in the milk, found an Australian article on the net, that confirmed a link , since stopping growing it, not had a problem.

the important factor, if feeding to dry cows, is it is deficit in iodine, which will give you dopey calves, easy to rectify, iodine teat dip, along cows back

 

[sidjon]

We grow forage rape , emerald works well, have try blue gorilla which was 3 grazing after grazing, ours will be drilled after forage rye is harvested

 

[DairyNerd]

We grow forage rape , emerald works well, have try blue gorilla which was 3 grazing after grazing, ours will be drilled after forage rye is harvested

Any idea on DM per hectare?

 

[sidjon]

Any idea on DM per hectare?

According to the agronomist than was a 5ton Dm/ha, but that probably is the best crop we've grown, most year's would be 4 ton dm/ha, worst was 3 ton Dm/ha, but grazing it twice more with a yield of 2 ton dm/ha but muti grazing summer crops don't really fit into my grazing platform, do normally use a higher seed rate so stems stay this and the cows will get high utilisation of the crop, nothing worst having high crop yields with poor utilisation

 

[happycows]

Do you think you could zerograze this for? maybe 50% of the forage? Perhaps a more leafy variety.
At what levels does taint become a problem?

 

[sidjon]

Do you think you could zerograze this for? maybe 50% of the forage? Perhaps a more leafy variety.
At what levels does taint become a problem?

Am planning to do 8 acres of forage rape from our youngstock farm this year for the first time, am just going to bale 2 bales in the mchale a day would make up couple of kg fresh weight/ cow to extend grazing, to reduce taint feed after milking

 

[Repeat]

If it's in the ground long enough I would go for some Maris Kestrel Kale, next any Hybrid Brassica, down to the cheapest forage rape you can buy if you can not get it sown early enough for the time your wanting to feed it.
Direct drilling or even broadcasting and harrowing would leave the ground firmer for strip grazing

 

[som farmer]

direct drilling, is best, you have a firm base

didn't stop the fecking fat hen though, only one spray, we were told, and its expensive, and known to fail if everything not dead right.

fat hen, or as we call it, bacon weed, is a major weed here. OM always reckoned it came in the pig feed, hence bacon weed. As we used to have a lot of pigs, the only places we don't see it, is where it was to steep to spread shite on.

one dry year here, rape sown, took 8 weeks to germinate in patches, on a really dry slope, it also took 8 weeks for any weeds to germinate, that's dry.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If your grazing in July I would go for Hybrid Kale , its hardly long enough kale , it's a lot slower getting away than rape and Kale
I grew Voltage and GlodenEye Kale last year , both yielded well , they get high though

 

[deleted user 837354]

Only trouble with the full blown ploughing establishment method is that it is a bit on the soft side for stock to go pounding on it if you get a downpour. That said, lovely to reseed into later on.

Weed control can be done. Good entry for grass etc come the autumn.