Triticale

[Daivie135]

Anyone any experience in combining spring triticale? Grew it for dairy cow wholecrop but was spraying it tonight and it would be a shame to chop it. Thanks in advance

 

[Al R]

Yes combined 150ac a year for a few years, not easy on the combine in a damp year, never had a dry year, imagine cutting wheat but with 2-3x the volume going through, header auger jamming, elevator jamming, drum blocking, second separator blocking, straw walkers blocking, returns blocking and tank feed elevators blocking. Failed to do any under 25% mind which doesn’t help. If I was you I’d wholecrop for the cows and keep some back for the combine for your seed for next year. Always found it did over 3t/acre once dried.

 

[Daivie135]

Yes combined 150ac a year for a few years, not easy on the combine in a damp year, never had a dry year, imagine cutting wheat but with 2-3x the volume going through, header auger jamming, elevator jamming, drum blocking, second separator blocking, straw walkers blocking, returns blocking and tank feed elevators blocking. Failed to do any under 25% mind which doesn’t help. If I was you I’d wholecrop for the cows and keep some back for the combine for your seed for next year. Always found it did over 3t/acre once dried.

West of Scotland so I’ll just wholecrop I think ? might work out cheaper to buy the seed for next year. Just the bulk of straw that appealed to me

 

[Tarw Coch]

I bought some in the swath at a straw sale some years ago along with the field of wheat next to it. The triticale looked very impressive, pretty much twice the height of the wheat so an absolute bargain.....................except the wheat baled up more bales to the acre.
It might have just been the crops but that experience made me think that the triticale ain’t as impressive as it looks.

A mate grows it for wholecrop, says it doesn’t need a lot of spray or fert, which would suit him, also the young plants are quite bitter which makes them less appealing for rabbits to nibble on.