Last weekend we finished sowing our lupins. Lupins are a legume and are a large round seed, as you can see below. They originated from the Mediterranean region and are quite high in both protein and energy so make a good stock feed, and in some countries are quite popular as a snack for humans.
They are very pretty seeds, don’t you think?
Below you can see the rows where the press wheels that run along behind the combine (planter) and press the soil down lightly to give a good soil to seed contact. You can also see that there is quite a bit of organic matter remaining in the soil. This is the stubble left over after last year’s barley crop was harvested. After the harvest we ran the sheep on the stubble, to let them forage for any left over grain that didn’t make it into the header (harvester). They also do a good job of trashing down all the stubble, and trampling it into the ground, making it much easier for the combine to get through it at sowing time. A lot of our neighbours burn their stubbles, and we have in the past too. It’s necessary when there is a very thick stubble, but if you can incorporate it into the soil instead, it can retain a lot of nutrients in the soil.
Our lupin seed will probably be sold direct to another farmer for stock feed We hope to harvest somewhere between 50 and 100 tonnes from this 90 acre paddock, but when we are dealing with mother nature, and can’t predict how the season will pan out, the final quantity is always and unknown!!
This is a seed that dropped out of a bag around the shed and has started germinating in the moist conditions.
We only have one paddock of pasture left to plant, and then we are finished our sowing for now.
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