Hey Folks,

Last week I went and had a look at the Haddon’s Warner Glen property and noticed something interesting that I wanted to share.

We grew a a cover crop mix in a number of paddocks there over the 2024 wet season, some of which we grazed before maturity while they were still growing and some that we only grazed in late spring once they had set seed.

The cover crop mix that we seeded was the same across the whole property and we wanted to see what would happen under the different grazing regimes.

What I noticed on my recent visit was that where we had left the cover crop to go to seed, the vigorous annual species in the mix had effectively smothered out low growing species such as chicory and plantain (pic 2).

Where we had grazed it earlier in the growing season, the chicory and plantain was still going (pic 1).

What are the takeaways ?

It seems that mixing low growing pasture species in with a vigorous annual mix that you are going to stockpile and leave to set seed is a waste of money. Such species are probably best sown in different paddocks and combined with other lower growing species, and/or species that you can green season graze, so they don’t get smothered.

Another thing worth noting is that the vigorous annual species mix that was left to grow to maturity did an excellent job of smothering weeds and could be used for such a purpose.

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