Why sow forage rape?

1. VERSATILE FORAGE

Spring-sown rape fills the summer feed gap. The perfect non-pasture feed for stock when facial eczema spore count or internal parasite larval challenge is high. Finish lambs, feed your ewe lamb replacements or flush ewes late summer. For milking platforms, plant rape as part of your summer brassica feed system, start by grazing Barkant® summer turnip and switch to forage rape in late summer. This means cows spend more time on summer brassicas. Autumn-sown rape delivers high quality winter feed just when you need it.

2. HIGH QUALITY

Forage rape is a high quality feed with nutritional benefits for grazing animals. The excellent leaf percentage of rape (average 68% leaf) and soft stems mean better performance by stock. Rape contains energy levels of 11-13 megajoules of metabolisable energy (MJME)/kgDM and moderate to high crude protein content (Westwood and Mulcock 2012*). The ideal high quality forage to balance summer pastures or silage/straw supplements over winter.

3. MULTI-GRAZE OPTIONS

Single or multi-graze, the choice is yours. Goliath® and Titan® are new generation, multi-graze cultivars that are an interspecies cross between rape and kale parentage. Graze now, close up for a month and regraze later. Expect up to 3.5 tDM/ha regrowth at the first regrazing. Combining Goliath or Titan rape with an Italian or short-rotation ryegrass increases the flexibility of rape as a multi-graze option.

4. VARYING MATURITY DATES

PGG Wrightson Seeds rape cultivars range in maturity dates from 70-110 days after sowing (DAS). Ideal for matching feed supply with stock demand and avoiding crops being ready to graze at the wrong times. Planting two forage rape cultivars on the same day allows you to leverage the variation in plant maturity to graze feed over a longer period. Graze early maturing Titan 70-90 DAS. Later maturing Goliath and Cleancrop™ rape are ready to go 90-110 DAS.

5. PERFORMS OVER A RANGE OF SOIL FERTILITY AND MOISTURE STATUSES

Compared with other brassica species, forage rape tolerates lower soil fertility – a suitable option when soil tests come back with less than ideal results. Like all species, forage rape dry matter yields improve when soil fertility is optimal. For areas prone to summer or autumn dry, choose forage rape. Rape is more tolerant of drier growing conditions than other summer brassicas such as leafy turnip and bulb turnip. Despite tolerance of dry conditions, rape performs best when irrigated or planted in summer-safe areas.

* Westwood, C.T. and Mulcock, H. Nutritional evaluation of five species of forage brassica. (2012). Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Associations Volume 71, Gore. http://www.grassland.org.nz/publications/nzgrassland_ publication_2266.pdf