Catch Crops

As the name suggests ‘catch crops’ are ideal for maximising the use of your land as they are capable of delivering ‘fast food’ from a relatively short growth cycle.

We offer a number of options in this ‘Fast Food’ category.

Stubble Turnips
The white fleshed stubble turnip is an excellent catch crop which can produce nutritious, highly palatable feed in just 12-14 weeks after sowing.  The crop can be sown in the spring or later in the year immediately after the cereal harvest. The different types of stubble turnips available will enable you to tailor-make the crops to your exact requirements.
Key Varieties: Tyfon; Dynamo; Delilah; Samson; Rondo.

Forage Peas
If you are looking for a quick growing source of high crude protein fodder then put forage peas on your shortlist.  Apart from producing a very palatable high protein feed the crop fixes its own nitrogen.  Forage peas are very flexible – the crop can be big baled, ensiled in a clamp, or grazed in-situ and it provides a sound foundation in an arable silage mixture.
Key Variety: Magnus.

Forage Rape
With its relatively low seed rate and inputs forage rape is a popular choice with many livestock farmers.  The crop has a wide sowing window and will provide excellent autumn/winter keep for finishing lambs.  The crop can also work well alongside stubble turnips to extend the usage of that valuable crop.  Forage rape can also be used as a pioneer crop in upland reclamation projects.
Key Varieties: Hobson; Interval.

Forage Rye
Forage rye is the crop for early bite grazing for cattle and sheep in the spring.  An early sown crop can also provide an additional light grazing for sheep before Christmas.  Zero grazing is another option which is now being exploited by a number of farmers.  Forage rye helps you to maximise the amount of fodder you can produce from your land by enabling 3 crops to be grown in two years.
Key Variety: Humbolt

Catch Crop Mixtures
We offer a number of mixtures including Lamb Tonic, Early Lamb, Meat Maker and Late Lamb.  The Lamb Tonic is particularly interesting as it contains both plantain and chicory – a combination which was developed in New Zealand.

If you would like more information on all these catch crops – including details on individual varieties as well as how to grow them – then please click on the appropriate PDF above.  You will then be able to view the information on line or download it for future reference.