Vetch shines in mixed-farming enterprise

When Cascade farmer Mark Roberts started farming in 1995, he remembers harvesting vetch for grain that was exported to Belgium as racing pigeon feed.

Two decades on, vetch has become an integral part of a farming system on the family farm he manages with his brother Simeon.

The initial ‘tinkering’ with vetch didn’t last long because the market, literally, flew the coop, so the focus became field peas, reflecting an established attitude of maintaining a diverse enterprise of mixed farming.

“We eventually gave up on field peas because of inconsistent yields, pricing and the fact it was hard on the machinery,” Mr Roberts said.

“Then in the mid-2000s, we looked at vetch again when a new variety called Capello was released and Luke Marquis (South East Agronomy Services) prompted us to try some.

“It was a long-season variety designed for high rainfall zones designed more for hay production and biomass than grain yield.

“At the time there weren’t many grain legumes available for heavier soil types and our pasture legume at the time was predominantly medic.”

Medic was surpassed by vetch in terms of production of biomass and stocking rates, and of course, nitro-fixing.

“Capello will grow six to eight tonnes a hectare and fix 20 units of nitrogen (N) for every tonne of biomass,” Mr Roberts said.

“Having vetch in our system increased our stocking rates to about 7.5 dry sheep equivalent on our winter-grazed hectares which is generally about 2500 hectares.”

Then the sheep are spread out on stubbles post-harvest.

The vetch is sown annually at a rate of 25 kilograms a hectare at the end of February into early March.

“We’ll wet or dry sow and we keep pushing for an earlier start because it doesn’t seem to finish until the water runs out,’ Mr Roberts said.

“The time of sowing is great because we can use seeding equipment at a non-busy time.

“This year we had the February floods so we planted on February 20 onwards.

“We achieve weed control with clethodim in the vetch stage, up to two times, if necessary, to get good ryegrass control.

“Stock select out for broadleaf weeds and by its nature Capello is very competitive.”

Mr Roberts said he achieved two extended grazings in seven months in paddocks, so he had flexibility to manage stock rotations.

“Once established we will graze it hard,” he said.

“We use numbers to get the Capello down to about a tonne of biomass before we take them off, then we let it bulk up again.

“Generally it will grow back to about four tonnes of biomass before the second grazing.

“We maintain a number of vetch paddocks on each farm so we have flexibility with our grazing.

“Generally we’re rotating grazing on between 2000ha and 2500ha and it’s nearly all legumes, with vetch being about 1600ha, serradella 200ha and medic 500ha with the rest early oats.”

On the cropping side, wheat is sown after vetch and this is where the extra bonus comes in with wheat benefitting from the organic nitrogen fixed by vetch.

According to Mr Roberts, N-use in the first year of wheat is generally 17 units of N compared with wheat on canola which gets 60-70N.

In the second cereal out of vetch N-use rises to 40-50N and in the third year it tops out about 60-70N.

“So for us, vetch in a grazing system is more a passive legume that suits our mallee to sand-over-clay soil type,” Mr Roberts said.

“I would like a regenerating legume for our heavier soil types but until we get one we’ll stick with vetch, although we’ll also mix it up a bit with serradellas, grazing oats and medics.”

Mr Roberts is also is trialling a new vetch variety called RM4, which is reputed to grow 10 per cent more biomass than Capello and has a two week shorter growing season.

The mixed farming regime also will continue because he believes continuous cropping is not diverse enough.

“Our benchmarking with Rabobank has re-enforced the value of stock in the system,” Mr Roberts said.

And mixed farming also has another bonus.

“You’ve got a more permanent work force when you’re into mixed farming,” he said.

“And good staff is the key to any farming enterprise.”

“With sheep, growing pastures and crop, there’s always work.”