# winter forage (grasses) for sheep and goat



## trx680 (Jul 6, 2015)

I'm trying to figure out what I can plant and grow during the winter months. I have one sheep and one goat, about an acre of fenced-in back yard. They forage on the grasses and clover now, but what about the winter?
I live in Virginia, so we do get cold weather. I thought about planting winter wheat, or deer foot plot seed. Maybe more clover or a ryegrass.

What does your sheep and goats eat during the winter?


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## pmondo (Oct 6, 2007)

winter wheat
winter rye
kale
turnips


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## Maxpowers (Apr 4, 2012)

I'm looking into this myself right now. According to what I've seen I'm too late to plant turnips. 

What about radishes? My wife just planted some a few weeks ago and has harvested them already, looks like they only take 30 days.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

I'd plant Wheat and Cereal Rye (not Ryegrass)

It's hard to get Turnips or other Brassicas to compete with taller grains or grasses, and the seed is relatively expensive, whereas Wheat and Rye are cheaper and will provide forage all through the Winter and into Spring as long as it's not overgrazed. 

Now is the perfect time to plant both.

Planting Clover now will result in Spring germination


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

Mustard


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

If you plant a nice stand of tall fescue, you can stockpile it for winter grazing. If you had enough acreage, you could graze through it all winter long.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Divide your pasture into 4-6 sections so you can rotate them, giving each section 4 weeks or more rest between grazings so the plants can recover. Stock pile some hay to tide them over if the pasture can't keep up. Figure on about 3-5 lbs per day per animal


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## mustangglp (Jul 7, 2015)

I plan on planting a couple acres of this as soon as we get some rain 
25% Beardless Barley
45% Oats
30% Triple IV Wheat
Plant at 100 pounds per acre
http://hearneseed.com/forage-mix-4/
Anyone have any experience with Piper Sudan grass ?


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Bearfootfarm said:


> I'd plant Wheat and Cereal Rye (not Ryegrass)
> 
> It's hard to get Turnips or other Brassicas to compete with taller grains or grasses, and the seed is relatively expensive, whereas Wheat and Rye are cheaper and will provide forage all through the Winter and into Spring as long as it's not overgrazed.
> 
> ...


My experience with turnips is that they are like a young man's dream date, fast, cheap, and easy. Yeah, a 50lb bag was about $100+, but that seeded over 100 acres when combined with soy, milo, rye, cow peas, mustard, rape, and several other seeds for a deer, wild pig, and cattle grazing mix. I planted by broadcasting into grass usually, bare ground sometimes, and hit it with an aggressively tined drag. I was happy with the production but it was significantly better on bare ground. I was eating turnips turnip greens in about 6 weeks and roots in 9. 

If the OP is planting just turnips, the application rate is about 2 lbs / acre on prepared ground, so even though the bag is expensive, on a per acre basis it is an extremely good deal.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Can not pasture sudan after frost....James


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Here annual ryegrass is great sheep fees. We pasture lambs all winter on it, starts to grow good early. Lots of feed early, cut in late June, combined in early July for seed. Orchard grass and perennial ryegrass is good feed too, also makes good hay, especially if worried about endophyte....James


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I don't like anything like mustard, turnips or that sort for milking goats, makes the milk taste. I don't work my ground up, I will over seed of needed. If a field was rough, I would plant a nurse crop like oats and peas and the pasture under that for a better stand and to keep erosion minimal....James


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## mustangglp (Jul 7, 2015)

jwal10 said:


> Here annual ryegrass is great sheep fees. We pasture lambs all winter on it, starts to grow good early. Lots of feed early, cut in late June, combined in early July for seed. Orchard grass and perennial ryegrass is good feed too, also makes good hay, especially if worried about endophyte....James


How much water dose the Orchard and rye grass take ? We average 12 to 15 inch a year with hot summers . i do have small spot i can irrigate in the summer September though December is the time need to improve my feed supplies .


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Here, less than to get a good crop of wheat, barley and oats. Those need to be planted into well worked ground with good moisture. Grasses are planted here in the summer and sprout and grow in the dry, then take off with rain. Good thing is they are perennial, also will grow if scattered on the ground before rains. We like clovers here too. IF we work the ground and drill oats, we plant some peas with them too. We get a lot of rain here in the fall, winter and spring but it got real dry from Feb to now. Spring crops were very thin, grass did well until eaten down, then burned up early august....James


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

There are several really good "friendly" endophyte varieties of tall fescue, as well as endophyte-free varieties (that are not quite as hardy). No reason to be avoiding fescue anymore.


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## DaleFarm (Nov 4, 2015)

Is it too late now to plant winter wheat? (November 10 in Tennessee) and can you just sow it without breaking the ground?


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## Rectifier (Jun 12, 2011)

For the long-term I would agree with Katie and establish a stockpilable grass like fescue. You can't count on anything to grow much when temperatures go below freezing, but fescues retain their feed value when dead and standing. 

I graze until the end of December on a good year on stockpiled native grasses, which are mostly fescues. Really saves me on hay and the associated labour of feeding.


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## njenner (Jul 15, 2013)

mustangglp said:


> How much water dose the Orchard and rye grass take ? We average 12 to 15 inch a year with hot summers . i do have small spot i can irrigate in the summer September though December is the time need to improve my feed supplies .


Where are you in Cali? I'm in Tulare County and it's too hot here for Orchard grass; winter rye does really well; we planted a 1/4 acre in Sept. to see how it compares with 3 other 1/4 acre paddocks with clover, and perennial grasses. I want to see if it crowds out the clovers and other grasses


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## mustangglp (Jul 7, 2015)

I am in northern SLO county so we do get hot I planted a mix the 3 week of October so far its looking good sumer will be the test I will post a picture when I get a chance.


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