Crickie Farm Project Update - March 2024

During the Winter of 2023/24 a successful first season of grazing cattle on fodder beet was achieved using the Geronimo seed variety, and grazing was allocated as follows:

Crop available - 
2 fodder beets weighed - 2 kg average fresh weight. 
6 plants/m
= 12 kg fresh weight/m2  = 120t/ha. 

Field was 2 Ha which equates to 240t total fresh weight feed available.

Variety of fodder beet grown was 14%DM which provided 33.6t DM on the 2 Ha or 16.8t/Ha DM.

Grazing demand - 
300kg cattle eating 2.5% of bodyweight = daily requirement of 7.5kg/DM. 

40 cattle required an average daily demand of 300 kg DM.

Average grazing days - 
40 cattle DM requirement over 4 months = 36t. 

With the addition of silage bales there was in excess of 4 months grazing (or 120 days) in the field.

(Bales analysed at 32%DM and assumed average 500kg = 160 kg/DM/bale)

Planning for winter 2024/25
A 4.87ha field (Above Pond) was selected for 2024/25 grazing and fodder beet established to out winter 40 growing cattle averaging 300kg in liveweight, Figure 1.

 Figure 1. Trial field location at Crickie

The Geronimo Seed Variety was used again, but for this season we decided to trial the use of primed seed vs non-primed seed. Primed fodder beet seed (seed that has been pre-germinated, dried and pelleted) enables faster germination which can be useful with the unpredictable weather conditions.

The field has been split in two equal parts and one half drilled with primed seed and the other with conventional seed: 

The trial will also be evaluating the effects of nitrogen applications on crop quality, whereby one half of the field will receive 100kgN/ha from establishment to grazing and the other half will receive 150kgN/ha