It was all sounding good until I got to the "rotting egg" smell part! I will be curious to read if anyone has tried it yet. Thanks for the link.

 

why not plant turnips which are quite commonly used for livestock forage. These you do not have to dig as 2/3 of the turnip grows above ground. Cattle and sheep both love them. Cheap to plant 3-4 lbs per acre $1.80/pound for seed. Stock will gain weight like crazy. If you graze only the tops they will regrow. cattle will not know to eat the turnip at first and will graze all the tops but will eventually fig;ure out to eatl the turnip. If you are planning to harvest and hand feed check out mangolds or fodder beets, huge tonnage/acre.

 

I have planted turnips in previous years to supplement the forage that my cattle are fed using rotational grazing. The cattle did not like the turnips. As the other pasture forages diminished during Winter the cattle ate the tops but I still had the turnips themselves that rotted as Spring arrived.

 

I've planted turnips for years now, about 5 - 10 acres worth. My cattle fight for them if you throw a couple over the fence. Love them. They eat the tops, eat the bulbs, everything.

Last fall was a rough one, turnips were on the far end of the corn field. So I didn't get the cornstalks & turnips fenced until a day before freeze-up.

This spring,t he cattle stopped eating the hay I put out. Checked on them; as the ground thawed a bit, they were digging out the turnips, left my alfalfa bales sit. They love turnips, and do well on them.

I planted a few radishes this spring, but found out early planted raddish goes to seed, no root. We will see if any of that seed makes a root now for this fall...

I think the turnips are a hard to beat feed, think I like them better than the radishes; but haven't given the radish a fair trial yet.

I do things a little different - planting the turnips iin spring with my oats crop. As well as peas, clover, and alfalfa. Get several harvests off the small field - oats, straw, the peas add N to the oats crop, the cattle graze everything in late summer, and perhaps a little N in the ground from the legume crops for the next year.

Any questions on it, and I have some pics, just ask.

--->Paul

 

The variety that I planted was Barkant at the rate of 2 to 3 lbs per acre on approximately 20 acres. The herd had never been exposed to turnips previously and they ignored the entire plant initially. I had interplanted the turnips with the preexisting forage (fescue and clovers). The cattle were kept off the paddocks until the turnip tops were about 6 inches tall. The cattle ate around the turnips as they tend to do with a cow pattie. I rotated the cattle off the turnips as the other forages were eaten. As time passed and the my paddocks were about grazed out and I was getting short of forage I returned the cattle to the paddocks with the turnips. It was only then that they ate the tops. I even pulled a few of the turnips and tasted them myself to determine if there was a flavor problem. Their wasn't. It is because of the turnip problem that I am considering trying the radishes. I try to buy something most years that I have never used just to see the results.

 

Just corn & beans gets so boring - gotta try something a little different. That 5-10 acre field of oats I don't think i've ever done the same way twice - always trying something different.

I really wondered this summer as the radishes bloomed - wondered if I would see any oats! Turned out ok. No growth at all on the radish tho, all to seed. I learned you need to plant them in mid summer or later to get the root growth.

Little early to see what grows from them now. I see a little root, but in the early stages. We were _terrible_ dry here this summer.


A few of the tunips got close to basketball size near the corn rows - sucked up the N. The cattle will shave the bigger ones down with their lower teeth, you see these white spots in the field. Then the white spots disappear, as they get them pulled up.

The smaller baseball sized ones they just yank up & eat.

I don't get as many tops as I should with my methods - I need to swath the oats, and that cuts a lot of the tops off. By then the turnips are filling the root, and don't regrow a _lot_ of top growth.

It must be an aquired taste, but my cattle can't wait to get to yanking up the roots, they leave grass, clover, alfalfa, oats regrowth - they love the turnips, eat them fisrt. Makes them pretty smelly & slobbery, you don't want to be downwind of them!

I heard one story of a person planting turnips, and a 5 acre fella moved from town & didn't know much was calling in a gas leak smell to the authorities - took a while for anyone ot figure out it was just the smell of the turnips.

On another forum, they are talking about the forage radishes for breaking up the soil compation, and storing nutrients over winter. they break down very rapidly in spring & release the N, P, & K into the seed zone of your next crop. Turnips do about the same, tho they don't grow into the soil as deep.

--->Paul

 

agmantoo, your cows are picky.

A couple years back Farmer Boss planted the lower 15 acres in a mix of clover/grass/ "Raptor-T" turnips.

We figured out that it was best to graze the turnips while the ground was really wet because the cattle had an easier time pulling the roots out. Some of them REALLY liked the turnips others would only eat the tops.

It was hysterical to watch them eat them though. As the turnips age they get really pungent and strong (and big). The cows would be drooling and slobbering and chasing the tough old roots around trying to get a good bite out of them.

I worried that it would affect the milks flavor, but never did notice a difference.

 

How many acres per cow ( or cow per acre) per month would be recommended.

L

 

Pulling some and feeding to the cows will help. Most cows have no idea they can eat a turnip you have to train them, much like getting cows to eat pumpkins or watermelons they just have to learn they are good to eat. The last time a did a check on a monoculture turnip field. 60 days after planting, strip grazed moveing fence everyday I got 143 days/acre/pair. This was in October and calves weighed around 500 lbs. It is important that the cows have access to some roughage ie poor quality have, cornstalks. During that trial the cows ate about 5lbs of lousy alfalfa hay that had laid in the field and been rained on for about 3 weeks, it was nothing but black sticks. I have an article that says 1000 days/acre for sheep and 180 for dairy cows. I plant purple top white globe, much cheaper seed price and I can not see much difference in barkaft. I have 25 acres in now some will be sheep pasture, one field be grazed by weaned calves in October.

 

I believe that you folks are right in that I failed to introduce the turnips to the cattle. Over time they did eat the tops as they were use to grazing but since the cattle have never had any grain. The cattle failed to realize the turnips were edible. In the future if I plant something in this plant group I will pull some of the results and cut them up and distribute them on the pasture. Thanks

 

heck if the cattle don't eat the turnips people can..i love turnips..and you won't starve if you plant turnips..(you might if you don't like radishes though)