Forage Brassicas
Beet
While the recent demise of our valuable Sugar Beet industry has seen a large reduction in beet acres sown in Ireland, Fodder Beet (& Sugar Beet) remain highly important to many livestock farmers as high energy feeds, particularly for winter finishing beef cattle.
Beet remains an expensive crop to grow, and requires no small amount of expertise to get it right. However, when grown correctly, it has the potential to produce well over 15 tonnes of high quality dry matter per hectare at a cost per tonne that will be lower than any other feed source available to us.
We provide a complete Beet agronomy & input service. Contact our Crop Agronomy / Ruminant Nutrition team for further details.
Brassicas
Irish farms have a natural climatic advantage over the rest of Europe and most of the western world in terms of utilising Brassicas as low cost forage crops for their livestock. With the exception of a small scale revival in the last few years, we believe that Forage Brassica crops such as Kale & Forage Rape represent an opportunity that has been largely missed by Irish livestock farmers.
We are convinced of the important cost saving role crops such as Forage Kale can play on Irish farms when grown & utilised properly. Like all successful crop growing “the devil is in the detail” and we have had various demonstrations days and trial plots set up where we achieved phenomenal dry matter yields and demonstrated the true potential of brassica crops..
We provide a complete Forage Brassica agronomy & input service Contact our Crop Agronomy / Ruminant Nutrition team for further details.
Forage Maize
In recent years we have witnessed the expansion & development of Forage Maize which is inherently far more suited to growing in warmer countries, but which can be grown successfully here most years. Despite all its extra costs, we believe Maize should be grown under plastic, particularly in the midlands and northern half of the country. Without plastic, the DM yields & quality achieved from Forage Maize are simply too erratic from year to year.
We provide a complete Forage Maize agronomy & input service. Contact our Crop Agronomy / Ruminant Nutrition team for further details.
www.agriculture.gov.ie/farmingsectors/crops/cropvarietyevaluationcve/cvepublicationsinformation/