Winter Rape

Winter rape is a green manure, forage and honey culture.

Winter rape is valuable for its ability to grow fast and grow big green mass in the cold autumn and spring periods.

After the decomposition of biomass in the soil, it becomes easily digestible rape fertiliser and the soil replenishes with organic matter and humus. Winter rape enriches the soil with organic matter, phosphorus and sulfur. It effectively absorbs the nutrients from the upper layers of the soil, preventing them from leaching into the subsoil.

Green rape mass is a highly and easily digestible food, which contains twice as much protein as green mass of maize or sunflower, and many minerals. The lack of winter rape is the presence of toxic glucosides and erucic acid, the number of which is increasing with the aging of the plant. Therefore winter rape is mowed for green fodder and silage before it starts to bloom and is fed to the animals in admixture with other feeds, but not more than 20-30 kg per day per cow. After grinding it is better to use during an hour, as the mass is self-heating and its taste qualities are falling.