Archived News

28th May 2015

A good strong breeze over the past few days has been beneficial to the Lucerne crop prior to cutting today.

There is a mower on the front of the tractor and one to the rear right hand side for greater efficiency and fewer 'field passes'

Lucerne has the reputation of being quite a difficult crop to grow, but being 20% protein it should make a good alternative or compliment to maize silage.

It is usually planted as a four or five year ley and once established it will be cut 3-4 times per year at six week intervals.

We have grown 30 acres of Lucerne for the very first time, sowing it last August and expecting three cuts between the end of May and the end of September. This allows the plants to begin re-growth and store up reserves before winter.

Lucerne cannot be grazed as it causes bloat and is therefore turned into silage. 

It can be stored and covered in a silage clamp or baled and wrapped.  We have chosen to bale our lucerne so that ‘leaves’ or sections of the bale can be pulled off and used as necessary over winter.

The crop was cut this morning and left to wilt in the field as it needs to be less than 70% moisture when baling.

After wilting for a few hours the lucerne is spun into rows or 'rowed-up'

The rows or Lucerne were then baled

The process of wrapping was very efficient with this Mc Hale wrapper

155 bales were produced and wrapped and work completed at 10pm. The process will be repeated in six weeks time.