Turnips, Radishes and Mustard

[Debbie Meier]

Saturday at the Hat Ranch Field Day, (Honold Angus Tarentaise / www.hatranch.com) near Coon Rapids Iowa we were introduced to an interesting pasture concept. They had a field that they seeded for pasture of the first time, previously it had been used for row crops. Rather then planting a conventional pasture mix they tried something new for our area, it was a mix of Turnips, Radishes, Mustard with oats seeded with it, I could have sworn I saw some peas in there too. The cows loved it, I don't recall the tonage of yield that they estimated or the number of feeding days they had gotten out of it so far this season but they did say it fed more cattle for a longer period of time then their other pastures feed. Typically they rotate all their pastures, but this one they could keep cows on all summer.

 

The appearance of it looked strange, it was obvious that it was a new seeding, but until you looked closer you would think it was just over grazed looking sorta sparse. But, as you looked closer you could see the tops of the turnips and radishes, I was not the only one that pulled a radish up out of the earth as the cattle surrounded us grazing on the tops. It was also clear that as one forage source was eaten off another was immerging to replace it, the pasture was constently renewing itself without needing a rest.

 

It was real interesting to see a cattle producer that was willing to test out ideas that are new to them, another plan they have for the next planting season is to introduce wheat from Wyoming to see how it performs in their Iowa soils.

 

Today the HAT Ranch is the largest breeder and bull provider of Tarentaise cattle in North America. They maintain a 500 head cowherd, 800 head feedlot, feed dealership, as well as corn and soybean fields. They are crossing the Tarentaise cattle to Angus cattle.

 

At their request we demonstrated the practical use of stock dogs on an operation such as theirs, the focus of their handling operation is low stress handling, it is important to them to provide replacement cattle to their buyers that are easy to handle. Wayne has been going over there nearly every weekend for over a month to dog break a group of cow/calves and a small group of replacement heifers with a bull for the demonstrations. It proved to be a bit of a challange for both Wayne and Jake, the cattle are visited regularly by coyotes and were not overly open to moving off of a dog. With the exception of one ornary red Tarentaie cow that is known for being hard to handle even on foot they got the job done, that cow, just ignore her and she goes back to the herd and her calf, not the ideal fix, but all agreed it was not worth getting injured over a cow that was on the to be culled board.

 

At a previous field day they had brought in a clinicianer to introduce their customers to low stress handling techniques on foot using simple pressure and release. Our job was to show how a dog working properly could be an asset to any of their operations.

 

Over time the HAT Ranch plans on introducing working dogs back into their operation. At this time their base cow herd has not been handled by dogs and does not plan on allowing dogs in their midst. The plan is to dog break the young replacement heifers and over the course of time have the work on the entire operation assisted by working dogs.

 

Luckily Micheal Honold, has recently moved home back to the HAT Ranch from Wyoming where he had been working on ranches near Kaycee, there he utilized dogs regularly. He is now managing the cowherd and looks forward to integrating dogs into the day to day operation.

[Ooky]

I believe that style of pasturing is light-years better for the land than the normal single or dual-species annual grass hay mixture for pasture, sometimes even sprayed with a 2,4-D type herbicide for "weeds". You are right to notice that the different species use different parts of the light and soil profile, and therefore as a whole get more of it. Yet the soil is less depleted after a growing season with the inclusion of legumes, which fix nitrogen into the soil. Some of those species are more nutritious than grass, as well. Also, imo sort of like raw, it is a diet that stock are more evolutionarily used to - differing plant species with differing nutrient profiles and digestibility. Bison, range cattle, range sheep, wild horses all graze forbs as well as grass. Bison and wild horses preferentially graze areas with more forbs and higher diversity of plants, like prairie dog towns.

 

Glad to hear the demo went well! As an aside, my husband has family in Coon Rapids - it's one part of the country I've never been to, though.

[Liz P]

Did they say how they prepared the field prior to seeding?

[Debbie Meier]

They didn't say anything as to how it was prepared prior to planting which leads me to believe nothing special was done outside of conventional practices. There was actually two big fields/pastures that we saw, one had hog manure applied to it prior to planting from the confinement that it surrounded, typically the manure is liquidfied, pumped and knifed in. Based on the size of the confinement I can't visualize it yielding enough manure to be able to apply to the second field.

 

I asked where they got the idea, I was told that Micheal read of someone having success out East, but nothing specific.

 

Deb

[toney]

In Louisiana, they have been wintering dairy cattle and beef cattle on a combination of clover, annual rye, turnips and mustards since before the Depression. The turnips and such come up in the fall, the rye or winter wheat in late December or January. The turnips and such die out before the rye, which is then cut for hay and the summer native or improved pasture pops up around that time, leaving only a couple of weeks of somewhat sparse vegetation for grazing. Deer like the mustard, rye grass and turnips, too, which makes it even more attractive to plant in pastures during hunting season. Sometimes I go out in the pasture to get the turnips (before the animals are let in) to cook for dinner. Another use for rotational grazing.... Seedbed prep down here can range from overseeding on native or improved pasture, or disking up and replanting the entire pasture for winter.

[Bill Fosher]

I've put sheep on turnips a time or two. I had the best success with no-tilling the turnips into oat stubble. It's great high-energy lamb feed, although it does tend to be a little bit low in fiber so it helps to have a grass or annual cereal available to them. Alternatively, I've heard of some shepherds offering a small amount of dry hay.

 

The use of brassicas for livestock feed is older than the hills in the UK.