Roughage tour week 41 - Grass
Dairy farmers busy with sowing, good autumn cut
Most dairy farmers have now completed the agricultural work. The participants in the Boerenbusiness Roughage tour were busy last week with the last work. The last cut is being taken off the land and the reseeding of the grass is underway.
The results of the grass mowed last Monday at Sander Vijverberg from Strijen (South Holland) has arrived. The grass had a protein content of 204, making it the most protein-rich autumn cut of this season so far. "Top result completely in line with my expectations". This year, Vijverberg has chosen to mow strictly according to the calendar and that is bearing fruit. He talks about beautiful quality silages and is proud of them. Things could have been better with summer field beans, says the dairy farmer from the Hoeksche Waard.
The crop remained too low due to the heat, so that a lot of yield was left behind on the land during harvesting. Vijverberg estimates that up to a ton may have remained on the land. He previously sowed Italian ryegrass on the fields where the dairy farmer had summer and winter field beans. These plots could also be mowed now and this has been put in the bottom of the silage. Unfortunately, with the summer field beans it was clearly visible that part of the harvest had been left behind on the land. It resulted in a wet crop on both plots, which, according to Vijverberg, smelled nice. Due to the high yield of the autumn cut and the somewhat disappointing weather, it was difficult to get a good dry matter content. All in all, Vijverberg is very satisfied with the lawns this growing season.
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Less emergence of radish radish
Also Robert Welhouse from Wapse (Drenthe) has a lower turnout with fodder radish due to the fact that summer field beans are left behind. Welhuis chose to sow this green manure for extra nitrogen fixation in the land, so that the fodder beets can grow better next year. This appears to have been successful, only not entirely with the green manure, but more with the field beans themselves.
With Shoemakers from Udenhout (North Brabant), the grass was mowed about two weeks ago. Schoenmakers consciously chooses to mow a smaller cut, so that the grass dries even more easily. "a nice slice, but I'm afraid we can go again", as he says himself. He doesn't want a thick wet suit, but prefers to put in a little more work and go for quality. The new maize is now also being fed. It seems a bit dry at first sight, despite the much watering. Schoenmakers deliberately sowed Italian ryegrass on the maize fields. He can possibly tear another plot of grass next year, if it is disappointing.
Bert Swaps is from Hengelo (Gelderland) has started rolling in the plots. The undersow of the maize countries is looking nice and green. After two years of summer field beans, Wissels will opt for winter field beans after all, looking at the increased yield of the winter variety. In addition, the cultivation of the summer field beans was somewhat disappointing, especially the weed control. The winter field beans have already been sown, with wheat as under-sowing. This is done in collaboration with an arable farmer as part of a project.
Manon van der Meer
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