Pearce Seeds Ltd
Root Crops
Root and Forage Crops continue to make a significant contribution to the profitability of livestock production. They provide home grown feed, reducing the reliance on costly conserved and bought-in food, as well as recycling crop nutrients within the field for the next crop.
Stubble Turnips
Mainstay catch crop for livestock grazing, widely grown for sheep and cattle. Generally, the bulbing types are grazed over winter, and the leafy type are summer utilised. Suitable for Summer, Autumn and Winter grazing
Current varieties
Vollenda
Delilah
Forage Rape
Suitable for Autumn/Winter grazing, and usually grown in mixture with stubble turnips. Sowings are made as soon as harvest is cleared to lengthen the time for establishment and growth
Current varieties
EMERALD
HUNGARY GAP
ENGLISH GIANT
Kale
The long-established mainstay of Autumn through to late Winter grazing, producing heavy yields of high protein and energy feed, with unrivalled winter hardiness
Current varieties
MARIS KESTREL - Providing high digestibility right through the winter
CALEDONIAN - Club Root resistant
Utility Brassica
New introductions which combine rapid growth and winter hardiness, also flexibility of use including the opportunity of regrowth grazing Suitable for Summer/Autumn/Winter feeding
Current varieties
SWIFT
RED START
Maincrop Turnip
Suitable for Autumn/Winter feeding. An earlier sowing is required to give time for root formation to take place. The spherical bulbs have a higher dry matter content than stubble turnips, improving winter hardiness.
Current varieties GREEN GLOBE
Swede
Traditionally sown quite early in western and northern areas where there is sufficient summer rain High yield of palatable food with added culinary potential
Suitable for Autumn/Winter feeding
Current varieties MARIAN
Fodder Beet
The highest yielding of all the root crops, with 40 or even 40 tonnes per acre realisable. Usually the beet is lifted and stored in clamps, though grazing in field is increasingly practised where soil conditions are suitable
Preferred variety BLAZE
Listed are a selection of frequently grown forage and roots crops grown on livestock farms. For comparison a table indicates their likely yield and performance potentials. Actual yields achieved will vary greatly according to site season and fertility. Most will be grazed, others will be lifted or cut and clamped.
Yield comparison
| Crop | Dry matter yield t/ac | Dry matter % | ME MJ/kg DM | Crude protein % | Fresh yield t/ac | |
| Stubble turnips | 0.8-1.3 | 8-9 | 11 | 17-18 | 10-15 | |
| Maincrop turnips | 2-3 | 8-10 | 11.5 | 15-17 | 25-30 | |
| Forage rape | 1.5-2 | 12-14 | 10-11 | 19-20 | 10-15 | |
| Kale | 2.8-4 | 14-16 | 10-11 | 16-17 | 20-25 | |
| Utility brassica | 1.5-2.5 | 10-12 | 10-11 | 18-19 | 12-15 | |
| Fodder beet | 3.7-7 | 12-19 | 12-13 | 12-13 | 30-40 |
Outwintering cattle.
With the ever rising cost of labour, machinery, buildings and conserved feeds the move to outwintering is gaining popularity once more. Critically, soil type must be conducive to the practise. The range of crops are many, but usually kale, rape and turnips or utility brassicae are grown. Situations vary too, from keeping young animals in store condition, to achieving high growth rates; dry cows; and actually fattening off high energy crops like fodder beet. Often, big bales of hay of straw can be seen left out across fields and the forage crops grown around them. They are in place then as the fences are moved across the field, avoiding tractor movements on wet ground, which reduces the risk of run off, soil wash or erosion. But equally there is ample recent experience to show that cattle will thrive on the grazed crop without the need to add further roughage, particularly when grazing kale.
Pearce Seeds personnel have a great deal of experience in advising on all these scenarios, as well as practical and agronomic knowledge, which will provide positive help in achieving the aims.
Seed dressings
Protective dressings are available on all this range of seeds. Please discuss this with us. Many seeds can be supplied untreated, which is often appropriate in the right conditions. Organic seed is stocked by Pearce Seeds too; it is usually obtainable, according to availability.
| Sowing date | Seed rate kg/acre | Harvest |
| April - August | 2 - 4 | June - February |
| May - June | 1.5 - 2 | October - February |
| July - August | 2 - 4 | October - February |
| May - June | 1.5 - 3 | September - March |
| April - August | 2 - 4 | July - March |
| April | 50,000 seeds/acre | October - November |
Pearce Seeds Ltd, Rosedown Farm, Marston Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4SX.
Tel: 01935 811400 Fax: 01935 816800
Email: info@pearceseeds.co.uk
