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Anonymous
I was seriously thinking about planting turnips later this year to use as a fall/winter grazing. Fairly popular in this area. Any thoughts?
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hairy_shemp
Active member
DID YOU FALL OFF THE TUNIP TRUCK?
D.R. Cattle
Well-known member
I planted some turnips in the garden for the greens. Couldn't keep the critters away from them. Must be pretty tasty.
I would insure that I got certified turnip seed. A local farmer got some forage turnips at a really good price. Turned out to be regular turnips. Cows couldn't/wouldn't dig them up to eat them. Until the rotted off, the field was like driving over a rock field. He's the only one around here that I know of that planted them. We plant rape, but that's planted for the deer and not the cows. In the few areas that the cows have accessed that has rape in it they ate it aong with the clover, then the fescue. What that tells me is that rape is more palatable then fescue, but just about everything is. Including fresh oak leaves and goosberry leaves.
dun
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Anonymous":2rpafj5c said:
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Anonymous
Here in SD, a neighbor plants peas and turnips in with the corn stalks. It looks good when there is alot of rain or where the neighbors irrigator hits it. The turnips kinda come to the surface when the ground freezes so they can dig 'em up, but the greens seem more palatable to them than the actual turnips.
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Anonymous
I guess I should explain more. People are planting quite a few acres around here (southern Illinois) in the late summer, and then gazing them in the late fall and winter. We were planning on planting more of a forage turnip, grown more for a vegatative top than the tubers. I have heard reports of 5-6 tons an acre of growth by the time it is grazed in the fall. I don't know alot about them otherwise and just thought somebody else might. We stockpile fescue and try to get by with feeding as little hay as possible, only feed it when we have snow or ice. So far this year have only averaged less that 1/4 of a round bale per cow. Thought turnips might be a way to have more forage later in the year.
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Anonymous
I plant a few pounds of turnip seeds in the rye grass pasture I use for replacement heifers. I get all the turnips I want to eat and later in the season the heifers start eating the turnips and they clean them all up. These are regular purple top turnips not forage turnips