Welcome!

my daily life on a cattle farm, my love of agriculture, and stories behind my photos

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

forage peas

We no-till drilled peas into a field. The Austrian Winter Peas are a forage pea. These forage peas will be chopped and bagged next spring. We will use the pea silage as feed for our cows.
 
Austrian Winter Peas
The peas were seeded at a rate of 50 pounds per acre. And, they were drilled at a depth of 2 inches. Soil conditions were ideal for seeding the peas. We purchased fifty pound bags of peas to be seeded over an eight acre field. 


The peas will be an excellent forage. The pea silage will be high in protein. From what I have read, tonnage and percentage of protein depends on the maturity of the peas when harvested. When peas are beginning to blossom, they yield 1 to 2 tons per acre and are 15 to 20% protein. When peas are developing pods, they yield 1.5 to 3.5 tons per acre and are 10 to 15% protein.

I had been wanting to grow peas as forage for our cows. After two years, we decided to plant the winter peas. I am so very excited to watch them grow!

 

No comments:

Post a Comment