Peas and sheep farming

[MugEye]

I have some fields that are not yet ready to be seeded into hay. I’m farming sheep . I was going to just seed oats for a year or two . But then I was thinking of the benefits of peas . Do any of you have experience with peas and sheep ? Any ideas would be great !

[270person]

Originally Posted by MugEye

I have some fields that are not yet ready to be seeded into hay. I’m farming sheep . I was going to just seed oats for a year or two . But then I was thinking of the benefits of peas . Do any of you have experience with peas and sheep ? Any ideas would be great !

Not sure what the members know about peas but I'd bet more than a few of them know lots about sheep.

[Junglefisher]

Originally Posted by MugEye

I have some fields that are not yet ready to be seeded into hay. I’m farming sheep . I was going to just seed oats for a year or two . But then I was thinking of the benefits of peas . Do any of you have experience with peas and sheep ? Any ideas would be great !

Peas as grain or silage? I put two small fields of pea/oat baled silage up this year.
The sheep seemed to like it. Unfortunately the sheep also had footrot so they all had to go. The cows treat it like it's crack or something. They won't eat the regular hay or the oat/barley silage. It should have better protein ratio than straight oats as well as better calcium.
Peas as grain would be great for sheep. High in protein, no need to grind it for sheep. I'd love to put 10 acres of peas in as grain for fattening my lambs.
Peas would also work well as late summer forage for sheep I think.

[MugEye]

My thoughts were to combine the peas and bail the straw . What time of the year would it be ready for combining? Does it mature early like canola ?

[yoteblaster]

Peas are much earlier than canola. Peas mid august , canola late sept early oct

[MugEye]

Since peas are so early would it be able to swat it and bail it whole ( like green feed bales ) . Are does it need to be combined ?

[hillbillyreefer]

Just cut and bale it if you are going to use it all for feed. No point separating it, losing huge amounts of roughage material combining it, then mixing it back together to feed the animals.

Plant oats, maybe barley, peas together, cut it when the peas are ripe(before they start to shell) bale it as green feed, it’s like crack to critters.

Yellow field peas mature at 90-100days, oats mature at 90days, barley is 60-90days.

[yoteblaster]

Would make very good green feed. Probably too rich to feed alone. Would need to be mixed with something else to tone it down. Call the AgInfo Centre in Stettler and they would be more than happy to answer any questions and provide recommendations. Good luck 👍

[Junglefisher]

Originally Posted by MugEye

Since peas are so early would it be able to swat it and bail it whole ( like green feed bales ) . Are does it need to be combined ?

If using just for feed, do not combine it. As reefer said, you'll lose a lot of your leaves (protein) for no reason. My peas were ripening in August and we have some of the lowest heat hours in the Alberta agricultural region. I'm pretty sure I could have combined them in September. I planted mine mixed with oats and baled it as wrapped greenfeed. 4010 peas are a great variety if you want to use the whole plant as feed as they grow a lot more leaves than pulse varieties. I used Razer peas and had decent plant size.

[MugEye]

Does it matter if it’s haybine or swathed ? About how many days of drying the me will it take before it’s ready to bail ? About the same as oats ?

[Junglefisher]

Originally Posted by MugEye

Does it matter if it’s haybine or swathed ? About how many days of drying the me will it take before it’s ready to bail ? About the same as oats ?

We swathed. I have no experience haybining greenfeed. A haybine might struggle, it's not unusual for it to be 5-6' tall.
We wrap our so 1 day is plenty. Making dry hay would take a good 3 or more decent drying days I'd think. Peas tend to be a little moister than oats in my experience.