Stubble turnips

reilig

Anyone ever sow stubble turnips?

Can you give me some pro's and cons?

Seed appears to be very cheap at under €10 per acre.

Much of the fertilizer requirement can be achieved by heaping on slurry.
I'm considering experimenting with 1 or 2 acres to have as a forward grazing area for weanlings from July onwards.

What's your view on it?

sheebadog

reilig wrote: »

Anyone ever sow stubble turnips?

Can you give me some pro's and cons?

Seed appears to be very cheap at under €10 per acre.

Much of the fertilizer requirement can be achieved by heaping on slurry.
I'm considering experimenting with 1 or 2 acres to have as a forward grazing area for weanlings from July onwards.

What's your view on it?

Used stubble turnips back in the day. They were spread on growing grain with an aeroplane about 3 weeks before harvest and they grew well did this for a good few years. Not really convinced of the feed value though. I've a feeling that they're low in DM

Interestingly they grew for years after on ditches etc.

delaval

I pass a group of 60 weanlings on them daily. Wire is moved daily with dry baled silage in the feeder. They are doing really well and have great coats. No idea of feed value though and it looks like no meal though troughs may not be visable from the road.

As for volunteer seedlings.
A really tasty neighbour asked his friend to collect some mulch to cover his bed on a new lawn, this guy would sweep up a crow crap as the crow flew away. Well anyway, his friend threw a fist of turnip seed into the mulch and there was a lovely crop driving your man wild. Still gets a few every year!!!!

reilig

Well the idea is that I have a good run of land for the cows to graze. However, it's rough enough. Fine for suckler cows, but when I'm trying to push weanlings from July on, they need a bit extra. I was reading the the turnip can yield 20 to 25 ton per acre fresh and have a crude protein of over 20%.

To me, it would be an ideal accompanyment to creep. It would be a cheap crop too - less than €5 per ton. Figures that i have seen cost it at 17c per kg live weight gain in animals.
I'm not talking about wintering cattle on it. I intend sowing in April for to start grazing it in July until October.

keep going

reilig wrote: »

Well the idea is that I have a good run of land for the cows to graze. However, it's rough enough. Fine for suckler cows, but when I'm trying to push weanlings from July on, they need a bit extra. I was reading the the turnip can yield 20 to 25 ton per acre fresh and have a crude protein of over 20%.

To me, it would be an ideal accompanyment to creep. It would be a cheap crop too - less than €5 per ton. Figures that i have seen cost it at 17c per kg live weight gain in animals.
I'm not talking about wintering cattle on it. I intend sowing in April for to start grazing it in July until October.

Are you talking about stubble turnips or swedes and grazing in july.I have grown swedes for years and yes they are 90 % water but they are great for reseeding stale ground and are do not require great fertility. Just finishing 6 acres with 18 dry cows that eat24 bales with them .it was a handy crop as it got no rain for a month after setting so they really germinated in aug but grew fine after that.weanling might be slow to eat them

reilig

keep going wrote: »

Are you talking about stubble turnips or swedes and grazing in july.I have grown swedes for years and yes they are 90 % water but they are great for reseeding stale ground and are do not require great fertility. Just finishing 6 acres with 18 dry cows that eat24 bales with them .it was a handy crop as it got no rain for a month after setting so they really germinated in aug but grew fine after that.weanling might be slow to eat them

Stubble Turnips

I'm looking into small bulb varieties. These will have substantial green shoots - some will even regrow once after being eaten. They are very palatable to young cattle.

Midlandsman80

I think a remember Legwax used to put up pictures of good weanlings on stubble turnips...might find some info from him on old threads, defo some pics up anyway.

Lano Lynn

have grown them in the past with varying success for lambs,
best results was from roundup after silage cut and broadcast RONDO on the surface!they germinated over six weeks it was a hot dry july.grazed off with lambs n grew great crop of whole crop barley the following year.

Sheep breeder

We had some stubble turnips again this year sown the last day of July and had a great crop and grazed with bucket reared calves which done super on the turnips, the second field we grazed with spring ewes and never had ewes in super condition a lambing, a great feed for a little amount of work.

galwayhillbilly

Sorry for hi-jacking an old thread just a quick query? would it be too late to sow a crop of stubble turnips in about 2-3 weeks time? I'm grazing off about 1/4 acre of rough ground. It was a garden and was also used as a dumping ground for the house back in the day when people didn't have bins, there's also a few old rocks and a pile of clay from a building project. I don't have time at the moment to reclaim it properly, I will have about 10 may/june born lambs that I will be hoping to finish off in feb-march. I was thinking of spraying it off, grazing it down tight and broadcasting on top of it including onto the pile of clay, it would help break up soil for a proper reclaiming job next year what do ye think?

Sam Kade

Not too late you can sow stubble turnips up to mid September. You can also get a second grazing in spring if you back fence.