yacker
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Registered: 05-2004
Location: Llandewi Breffi
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roots/brassicas
anybody still feeding/grazing cows on root crops?? I'm sure i saw a picture depicting Bickleygate cows grazing on kale, or am i going mad??? We feed alot of fodderbeet and graze alot of Kale in summer and i would be interested in hearing whether anybody is still practising a similar system or whether the mixer wagon has taken over.
Remember, Mr Keenan will boast about the extra litres you will get, but we will keep quiter about the margin on these litres....
Last edited by yacker, 3/6/2004, 21:37
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60 cows, 4.26% fat, 3.3% protein, supporting two families on a low cost system
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3/6/2004, 21:33
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Big Bird
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Registered: 06-2003
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Re: roots/brassicas
Up until a couple of years ago we fed stubble turnips in the summer.
Reason we stopped was flea beetle. Little sods were easily sorted by spraying, trouble was the time they needed doing was the same time as all the local maize, and it became impossible to get the spray contractor on time.
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3/6/2004, 21:57
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MarkDay
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Registered: 06-2003
Location: North Yorkshire
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Re: roots/brassicas
No mixer wagon here!
We strip graze Kale during August and September.It gives the cows a boost when the grass is losing some of it's attraction!
It helps with butterfat as well.
There are no longer any sprays on the market so we have had trouble with weeds for the last couple of years.
--- Bickleygate holsteins
"I have not failed 1000 times, I have discovered a 1000 ways that do not work"-Thomas Edison |
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4/6/2004, 13:12
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yacker
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Re: roots/brassicas
aye our strip grazed kale was our saviour last summer, with all grass burning up. On the weed front, we scruffle (mechanical hoe) all of ours and sometimes even manually hoe it. Flea was awful last year, we sprayed our game cover four times!
All of our fodderbeet is manually hoed twice.
best thing for milk quality was mangol wurzels but we stopped growing them a few years ago due to work required to harvest them.
Is your kale precision drilled or drilled with a conventional corn drill???
yacker
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60 cows, 4.26% fat, 3.3% protein, supporting two families on a low cost system
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4/6/2004, 19:27
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stuart m
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Registered: 03-2004
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Re: roots/brassicas
Originally trough fed f.beet with conc. 2x daily and saw a massive increase in dm intakes. Now feeding f.beet in tmr with grass/maize silage and still think we are seeing benefit especially in butterfat. I just wish it would store through the summer[it might do if covered in soil like they do with red beet in yorkshire].
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4/6/2004, 23:44
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