Wholecrop lupins.

[Agrifool]

Was wondering if anyone on here has ever wholecroped straight lupins? There is a protein financial incentive now of £330 / ha in northern Ireland but it cant be a mixture of cereals/grass etc. Just a single crop of lupins, beans, etc.
I'm on light soils so beans may not yield well. Just wondering what way straight lupins would ensile in the clamp, would it be a success or a wet mush?

 

[Soya UK]

Yes - you can ensile straight lupins, but it tends to be very wet & mushy, and you'll end up rolling the pit with a quad bike rather than a tractor.
If you use an additive and seal the clamp well, it preserves OK, and the silage is utter rocket-fuel in terms of its protein content / quality. It is also quite palatable, but it is wet & sticky at feedout.

Generally, most people go for the lupin / cereal mixes, because the mixed crop has much better structure. There's also the issue of it being too powerful, and many people prefer to have a bigger pile of stuff that is in a more dilute form, as it is easier to meter it out without wasting it.

The NI protein payment is an interesting one, and at £330 per Ha, there will be plenty of takers - but seed availability will be the issue. Most of the pea / bean / lupin seed planted in NI comes from mainland UK, but shipping it over is near-impossible as the new rules stand. You need a phytosanitary certificate for each consignment, and the seed needs to have OECD seed labels, and an Orange International certificate as well as Declaration of Origin, Packing list, FAO-standard format proforma invoice and sterilised pallets with certificate. Phyto's cost £200-£250 each and take 6 weeks to get, OIC's cost another £150, and the other 4 pieces of documentation are very time-consuming to produce / acquire.

Certainly, it will be impossible for individual farmers to make individual purchases from merchants in mainland UK. It'll only be viable for merchants like Mortons / Fane Valley, who will order full lorry-loads well in advance, (allowing time for the seed to be packed with OECD labels instead of normal UK certification labels), and then they will be able to hire a customs agent at their end, to assist with the importation end of the job. The extra £450-£600 cost can then be spread across the 26 tonnes on the lorry. Nobody will incur these costs and hassle for one consignment of just a couple of tonnes...... (and nobody will pack 26 tonnes with OECD labels unless they know they have a guaranteed sale with someone who will definitely pay when they are supposed to).

 

[Matthew Britton]

I see Brexit is working out nicely. It’s a bloody joke that N.I. is virtually another country now!

 

[neilo]

Was wondering if anyone on here has ever wholecroped straight lupins? There is a protein financial incentive now of £330 / ha in northern Ireland but it cant be a mixture of cereals/grass etc. Just a single crop of lupins, beans, etc.
I'm on light soils so beans may not yield well. Just wondering what way straight lupins would ensile in the clamp, would it be a success or a wet mush?

We used to wholecrop Winter Beans at home. It’s a wet, black mush but consistently 17%CP and the cows loved them (even if offered straight).

We used to sandwich it between layers of whole crop cereals, which were dry enough that they soaked up the juice. Not sure I’d want to try them on their own though.

I’d expect Lupins would work similarly.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I'm not sure what advantages you are hoping to get, 17% CP- you will get that from good grass silage?