# Planting Rapeseed



## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Has anyone done this? Must it be on a prepared seedbed or can it be successfully overseeded in pasture without tilling / plowing?

Thanks!

Brian


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

I plant hundreds of acres of its cousin canola every year. The seeds are tiny and shallow placement is paramount. Where are you trying to grow it? On pasture? What is your purpose of growing it? These questions will help me know better what the needs you have are.

And have I got questions for you about pigs!!! lol I plan on getting some this spring, but I'll start another thread soon enough.


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## Welshmom (Sep 7, 2008)

I planted Dwarf Essex Rape last year. I went over the ground two or three times with an old disc, then planted it with a 70 year-old JD drill. It cameup fine, but the drill planted it too thickly. 
My pigs didn't like it at all. Don't know why. My cows loved it.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Welshmom said:


> I planted Dwarf Essex Rape last year. I went over the ground two or three times with an old disc, then planted it with a 70 year-old JD drill. It cameup fine, but the drill planted it too thickly.
> My pigs didn't like it at all. Don't know why. My cows loved it.


Your drill quite likely had a seeder attachment when new. Brought home a bag of rape from FFA one year and then wondered how to plant it in a 2-acre lot. Seed looked like it would fit through the seeder and they did. Air-sown over very fine plowed, disked, and dragged prairie silt. Still probably came up too thick but the hogs didn't care. We had Yorkshires and their ears blistered but nothing serious. They loved it!

Martin


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## rcornish (Apr 4, 2005)

I will just interject that I overcast it on some bare areas and did not have much luck with it coming up. I think it likely has to be planted on worked ground of some sort to see success, but then I may have just had bad luck too.


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## heypig (Jan 13, 2011)

I planted it here in Northern VA. for deer with good success. No more than 1/4 inch deep in a good seedbed. I worked the ground over with a 6' rototiller, broadcast my seed, and ran over it with a water filled drum pulled behind a golf cart! Probably could have just let the rain sow it.


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## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Thanks for the tips. I have twenty acres of mixed grass pasture and I'm trying to improve it for my pastured hogs. I had planned on overseeding alfalfa but, while talking with another farmer, he suggested rapeseed as a better feed for hogs. However he didn't know how to plant it.

I'm hoping to avoid having to till up twenty acres...

I can't disk it as it is fairly compacted now and that would just compact it more. I have tested using a six tooth cultivator running shallow and that seems to work okay to open up some soil. I don't want to spray or burn and I do want to keep some of the grass as the hogs do okay; just trying to cut down on the supplemental feed they need.


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Brian, Provided you can ensure it goes on the ground and with a good rain forecast so the soil stays moist, a fair bit should grow. Germination takes a few days under good conditions. If you have a thatch layer on your pasture, along with any standing grass etc., as long as it stays moist, much should grow.


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## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Thanks, Dale. Can it be frost seeded like alfalfa? I still have a month and a half before last frost. Should I wait until after last frost? I know I will probably need to bush hog again to give the seedlings time to grow without being over shadowed b the grass.


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## 449piglady (Oct 15, 2009)

I have no knowledge of this plant other than what I have read in old pig books. The one I am referencing is Swine Production. This is what it says.
Rape makes excellent pasture. As a swine pasture Dwarf Essex rape, although not a legume, is nearly equal to alfalfa or red clover in value. It is the best single annual forage crop for hogs over the central and northern portions of the United States. Rape thrives on fertile land that is adapted to corn and if not overgrazed provides abundandant forage over a long season. The seed is cheap, and the crop is easy to grow. It can be seeded in rows or broadcast in early spring and should be 8 inches high before it is grazed. The crop is usually ready for grazing 6 to 8 weeks after planting. Since mild frost do not kill the plants, the crop will usually provide forage until late in the fall. In the south, rape is sometimes used as a winter forage crop. It is planted in September or October and will usually furnish forage during a period of about 3 to 4 months. (January to May) The carrying capacity during this period has averaged at least six well-grown pigs per acre. Rape grown on fertile soil will usually provide forage for 15 to 25 full-fed pigs, 6 to 10 hand-fed bred sows, or 5 to 7 self-fed sows and litters per acre. If grazed when it is wet, it somtimes causes blistering or sunscalding of white pigs or pigs with white spots, belts ect., or those with thin hair. However, no bred is immune. Exposure to the hot sun after grazing wet rape may cause blistering of the ears and the backs. This is therefore more likely to occur in rainy periods than in fair weather. It also occurs often during early summer than later. Generally, there is very little difficulty from blistering, even among white pigs, if rape is grazed when it is dry. Other disavantages of rape are that it is sometimes severly damaged by plant lice or aphids and it requires fertile soil for best results.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

HeritagePigs said:


> Thanks for the tips. I have twenty acres of mixed grass pasture and I'm trying to improve it for my pastured hogs. I had planned on overseeding alfalfa but, while talking with another farmer, he suggested rapeseed as a better feed for hogs. However he didn't know how to plant it.
> 
> I'm hoping to avoid having to till up twenty acres...
> 
> I can't disk it as it is fairly compacted now and that would just compact it more. I have tested using a six tooth cultivator running shallow and that seems to work okay to open up some soil. I don't want to spray or burn and I do want to keep some of the grass as the hogs do okay; just trying to cut down on the supplemental feed they need.


That would work to form a lot of cracks for the seed to filter down through. Problem is that much of the seed would be wasted on the sod between the furrows. If that percentage of the seed and its cost is expendable no problem. If it is, check around and see if someone has an old spring-tooth harrow. (Or look for one at auctions if you're going to be doing this annually.) It will create a lot more furrows and utilize more of the seed.

Martin


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## Welshmom (Sep 7, 2008)

Heritagepigs-
Just remember that the big difference between rape and alfalfa is that rape is an annual, alfalfa a perennial. "Alfalfa is the queen of forages", as they say.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We frost seed - no tilling, discing, etc. Not feasible to do the mechanical work on our mountain. The frost seeding uses the frost action to open the soil and drop the seeds in. It works very well. Lots of studies on it. See:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/2010/09/frost-seeding.html

We've done rape, kale, beets, turnips, clovers, grasses, alfalfa and other seeds this way.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

We only planted rape that one year. When the hogs were done with it, that field looked like it was ready to plant all over again as is and that's what we did. From then on, it was pure ladino clover.

Martin


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## Curtis B (Aug 15, 2008)

I was curious as to why not clover? I have read some about how cattle will "replant" the new seeds in their manure. I was wondering about other rumniants, and I was wondering about the pigs since they have a "quicker" digestive cycle, or if their stomach acids would destroy it.


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## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Clover dies out in the summer here.


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