Zoom forage brassica

[Great In Grass]

Forage Rape or Stubble Turnips or a mix of the two, actually reading your question again Stubble Turnips.

 

[Woolless]

Bringing this one back from the dead to get a bit of advice.

Got seven acres of Zoom which I'm just about to put 220 ewe lambs on. They've been wormed and had a cobisel bolus today. There's about an acre of decent grass runback. Has anyone on here bothered with putting a bale of hay out? And did you just chuck them on or introduce gradually?

@neilo

 

[neilo]

Best introduced gradually if you can, to any brassicas. Personally, I always fence them on a tight block to start with, until they've tidied it up, otherwise they'll just wander round trampling the crop before they get a taste for it. I've not put hay out for years, but would if I wanted to eek out a shortage of keep.
You won't get a lot of regrowth at this time of year, so I'd just strip graze it as I would any other brassica crop. They won't get going on it for a couple of weeks, as the gut gets accustomed to the change of diet, then they should do well (if it isn't pee'ing down with rain by then of course). How much of a crop is there? Are the lambs destined for tupping in November, or just running on/stores?

 

[quavers]

grew zoom last year for the first time , grass field next to zoom . divided the field up to last about a week and let the lambs find the field of zoom by them selves , no hay this was end of October but did throw in a couple of feed buckets which they hardly touched .

 

[Woolless]

Best introduced gradually if you can, to any brassicas. Personally, I always fence them on a tight block to start with, until they've tidied it up, otherwise they'll just wander round trampling the crop before they get a taste for it. I've not put hay out for years, but would if I wanted to eek out a shortage of keep.
You won't get a lot of regrowth at this time of year, so I'd just strip graze it as I would any other brassica crop. They won't get going on it for a couple of weeks, as the gut gets accustomed to the change of diet, then they should do well (if it isn't pee'ing down with rain by then of course). How much of a crop is there? Are the lambs destined for tupping in November, or just running on/stores?

They're a mixture, mostly Hampshire x lambs for finishing but also Easycare and Texel x lambs for tupping/running on. The crop is about two feet high in most areas. I'm going to cut and measure a square metre to give me a better handle on what's there. There is a grass field through a gate, so I could give them gradual intro, just means pi55ing about after work. Problem will be when I add another 70 late lambs in a couple of weeks time. Reckon I'll just need to chuck them in.

Splitting the tup lambs from the ewe lambs at this point. Tups are going on the plantain clover mix with the ewes on the zoom, as I thought the high crude protein levels would encourage growth without them getting excessively fat. I'm guessing that the plantain mix will fatten the tups more readily.

 

[neilo]

Are the ewe lambs on course for hitting tupping weights? If not, I'd be inclined to put the ewe lambs on the plantain/clover and the ram lambs on the zoom. Whatever changes onto a brassica diet will suffer a growth check for a fortnight from change of diet, before they get going again. Can your ewe lambs stand that and still hit tupping weight OK?

 

[scholland]

Are the ewe lambs on course for hitting tupping weights? If not, I'd be inclined to put the ewe lambs on the plantain/clover and the ram lambs on the zoom. Whatever changes onto a brassica diet will suffer a growth check for a fortnight from change of diet, before they get going again. Can your ewe lambs stand that and still hit tupping weight OK?

Always found a growth check taking them back off rape as well so tended to sell straight off it.
Id also put the keeping lambs on the plantain.

 

[Woolless]

The plantain mix contains red clover, so I'd rather avoid the tupping ewe lambs going on that. Might just pull them out and leave them on grass. Thanks for the advice!

 

[serf]

How are these to grow and manage , any good for cows/calve into Autum /winter sown end of July , are they ok with frost and what's best spun on rate ? ( I know it says on web page but is this the reality ...)

Have you sold or sown many @Kevtherev

 

[Oldmacdonald]

Wont take a decent frost well

 

[Kevtherev]

Getting a bit late for kale always like kale in earlier tbh.
Probably better off with Stubble Turnips or the leafy turnips.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

For Frost
Maincrop Kale or
Swedes
The only Turnip Stubble that I've had good feed back on for Frost is Whitestar but not the best for yield but it is higher in dry matter

Samsom is best for yield but not that good in hard Frost

Frisia takes Frost better than Samson

Marco seems to outgrow most things but no idea how it does as regards Frost and later grazing

Don't spend a fortune on fancy Hybrids, Plenty sell Interval or Rebound that perform well at a fraction of the cost

 

[serf]

Getting a bit late for kale always like kale in earlier tbh.
Probably better off with Stubble Turnips or the leafy turnips.

Got another patch with ST I put on earlier , perhaps should have put Kale on that instead ...
Will look at them leafys then perhaps , are they best at 1 kg/Ac not had much to do with their rate before ...

 

[Kevtherev]

Leafy turnips I put on at 1-1.5kg acre
@neilo has grown the Appin off germinal with great results.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I put maincrop Kale on at 2.kg 2 weeks ago , it's just starting to move away today I notice

 

[neilo]

Yes, I've had Appin (leafy turnip) in a few times and wish I had some in now tbh. They are very fast growing, regrow leaf from multiple crowns, then grow a big bulb as well if left long enough. I've just thrown them in the mix with grass, or in with stubble turnips, but they'd be ideal on their own as a Summer/Autumn, regrowing lamb finishing crop IMO.

Appin turnip planted in a grass mix last June (drought meant that I've redrilled it this year ), photo taken in October...

 

[serf]

Don't spend a fortune on fancy Hybrids, Plenty sell Interval or Rebound that perform well at a fraction of the cost

Are interval and rebound not hybrids ?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Are interval and rebound not hybrids ?

Yes but a lot cheaper than some
To be honest I
Send a lot of seed out to Lamb Finishers, one guy ordered over a Ton today so you can imagine how many lambs he is Finishing . No one hardly ever asks me for leafy anything but stubble turnips, I can stock anything but not going to stock something that no one seems to want