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Forage Crop Farmer Vlogs

Introducing Robert Anderson

The first of this year's farmer vlogs comes from Robert Anderson, Corskellie, who gives us a run through of his family's farming enterprises and use of forage crops for livestock. The crops are back about 2 weeks currently, but we have a time lapse camera on his field of fodder beet which will give us some fantastic footage of the growing year.  View here>>

Introducing Michael Shannon

The second vlog of the series comes from Lanarkshire farmer Michael Shannon at Thankerton Camp who gives us an overview of his farming system and the role forage crops play on his farm. Like the crops at Corskellie, sowing has also been delayed by 2 weeks here. We also have a time lapse camera set up which will hopefully catch both the Swedes and the Swift throughout the growing year.  View here>>

Introducing Stuart McWhirter

Introducing Stuart McWhirter, Kenmure, Newton Stewart. Stuart gives us a background to his farming enterprise in the South West and how he uses forage crops as a lamb finishing crop in the late Autumn and early winter. We will see how Stuart uses the direct drill method to establish his forage crops in upcoming vlogs.  View here>>

Robert Anderson - July 2021

After being late sown Robert Anderson's fodder beet has now been in the ground for two months.  Listen to Robert and his agronomist Ron Paterson on the challenges faced this season so far.  View here>>

Stuart McWhirter - Establishment Update

Stuart discusses his establishment methods for his forage rape and stubble turnip mix with Paddy Jack from DLF Seeds with Paddy giving some very useful rule of thumb on yield and utilisation expectations for different brassicas.

View here>>

Michael Shannon - September Update

Michael provides us with an update on how his forage crops are doing while we progress through the growing season. Whilst the crops are looking good, they have suffered from drought and moisture has been the biggest limiting factor which is apparent in the heavier areas deposited throughout he field. Keep tuned in for the yield analysis next month.  View here>>

Stuart McWhirter - September Update

Paddy Jack from DLF Seeds talks through the benefits of different types of brassicas and how these can be used to improve forage production in a grassland rotation.  View here>>

Robert Anderson - October Update

With our forage vlog series so far we have visited Corskellie's spring sown fodder beet, in this video we hear about Robert's summer sown swift. This crop has a very short growing season, being sown after 2nd cut silage in July, and the cows will be introduced in the coming days.  View here>>

Michael Shannon - Yield Analysis

This vlog from Thankerton Camp shows how the yield analysis of the 3 forage crops was calculated in preparation for the cattle being introduced mid-November. This will help Michael work out how many days the cattle can graze the crops for, stay tuned to see how the grazing regime is set up and implemented.  View here>>

Robert Anderson - Yield Analysis

The last vlog from Corskellie looked at the swift crop, in preparation for the cows being introduced to this crop, we took a yield and worked out how much to graze on a daily basis, watch this short video to understand our method.  View here>>

Stuart McWhirter - Yield Analysis

13 weeks after sowing the forage rape crop at Kenmure is ready to be grazed.  This video looks at the importance of yielding brassica crops and using lab analysis to determine the dry matter content for the preparation of a feed budget.  View here>>

Michael Shannon - System Set Up

Michael Shannon from Thankerton Camp Farm in Lanarkshire demonstrates how he sets up his forage crops for grazing and why he operates a 3 crop system incorporating Swift, kale and swedes.  View here>>

Robert Anderson - Swift

We visited Robert Anderson again following Storm Arwen and got an update on the cattle who were grazing the swift. Following the storm they were taken in for scanning. In this video we hear about his field set up and his plans for grazing the crop into January.  View here>>

Stuart McWhirter - Lamb Finishing Performance 

Stuart McWhirter from Kenmure Farm, Kirkcowan in South West Scotland discusses finishing lamb performance from the forage brassica at Kenmure and highlights some of the successes and challenges he has faced this year with finishing lambs.  View here>>

Michael Shannon - Cattle Transition & Swedes Variety Trial

Michael Shannon from Thankerton Camp Farm in Lanarkshire has been growing forage crops for 18 years for outwintering cattle.  In his final vlog he shares his cattle performance targets and his thoughts on this years season as he grows two varieties of Swedes in an attempt to improve the yield.  View here>>

Robert Anderson - Fodder Beet

Our final forage vlog from Robert Anderson, covers his fodder beet, how it has grown, and how he plans to transition his ewes on post tupping.  View here>>

Stuart McWhirter - The Future of Forage Brassicas At Kenmure

Stuart McWhirter from Kenmure, Kirkcowan has been using forage brassicas as a lamb finishing crop for a number of years.  In his final forage vlog he reflects on what works well and things he may do differently with brassicas in the future.  View here>>

Fodder Beet:  From Seeding to Feeding

During the 2021 growing season, we sited a time laps camera on Robert Andersons fodder beet in Aberdeenshire, this has captured the growth of this plant.  Kirsten Williams talks through the vigorous growth of the plant in the video, from sowing in the spring, through to being ready to graze in December by his pregnant ewes.  View here>>

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