Mangels / Fodder Beets

Someone asked me in a private message where we get quantities of mangels.

I buy them by the 50 lb bag from Johnny's Select Seeds

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7521-mammoth-red-mangels.aspx

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7536-yellow-cylindrical-mangels.aspx

I've gotten this question several times so thought I would share.

Cheers,

-Walter
SugarMtnFarm.com

I've always liked Johnny's. Their site offers more growing info than just about anybody out there.
I've been on their mailing list for years - one of the few vendors that I actually read emails from - great resource.

Many people associate them with home gardening, but they have many commercial customers (organic & otherwise).

My only problem with them is distance. Bulk orders can be brutal when you add shipping.
I need more local vendors for bulky orders.
I will use them for smaller orders - never have had any regrets - they are great to deal with.

Shipping costs are an issue, from any vendor. What I find is on bulk orders it is more effective to put them on a pallet and have them shipped by common carrier truck. Once you load a pallet (about $200 for a recent truck shipment I got from Texas (non-seed, basalt fibers for ferrocement but same idea) then the cost stays pretty flat so I can order 500 lbs to a ton of seed for the same shipping price. This makes the shipping inexpensive. To make this work for us we do big seed purchases every couple of years rather than every year. Properly stored, seed saves very well.

I just ordered from Johnny's and happened to add some of the yellow mangels to try out. I just received my order and was surprised to see some info missing from their site.

Not mentioned on their site is that the yellow variety contain the noxious weed Bedstraw, which I'm not familiar with in the least. I would imagine that's why the price is reduced so drastically, but I was surprised to see it not mentioned at all.

I suspect what you're referring to is the 'other' content. When you buy seeds in small packets they tend to be very pure and have no other seeds. When you buy in 25 or 50 lb bags, or larger, there is a listing for other, as required by law, because there might be something else in there that was in the fields those seeds were grown in. That's reality. I've never had a problem from that.

A solution is you could buy a lot of small packets that are hand counted out to avoid any other seeds. That involves a lot more labor for the seed seller so the cost is far higher. These seeds are merely on sale because they're the end of the year. Many seed vendors do that at the end of the year. It has nothing to do with the 'other' content. I often buy seed now and store it over the winter to be able to take advantage of these year end sales. This saves a lot of money. Seed stores well for a looong time.

Johnny Niamert wrote:the yellow variety contain the noxious weed Bedstraw, which I'm not familiar with in the least.

FWIW, I wouldnt worry too much, I have tried purposefully to grow Bedstraw here, with no success. Never can get it to grow anything past germination. Odd, but, in your case, comforting.

We've got bedstraw here, it doesn't cause much trouble. It's mowable, green, has a hearty root system, rabbits love it, flowers smell divine. Most sources say it's edible. It's ok, tastes fine and has a slight numbing feeling to the mouth like tobacco or spilanthes.

I was gonna mention after researching into bedstraw a bit, I would imagine it would be beneficial to 'weirdos' like us who don't mind some 'auxiliary' plants. I've just never heard of it before.

Walter Jeffries wrote: I often buy seed now and store it over the winter to be able to take advantage of these year end sales. This saves a lot of money. Seed stores well for a looong time.

I learned to do this after my first few summers with my own garden. A lot better selection of varieties still available now, as well.
You're correct, this is my first 'acreage' based order, instead of backyarden. I only got a pound to include into my 'pasture turn-around' mix that I'm gonna try to establish on a few acres of neglected pasture this spring. My main goal is to save the vast majority of mangels to see if I can reduce layer feed cost next winter.

I was just surprised to see the weed content omitted from being mentioned.

The bedstraw seeds are probably a lot smaller than the mangel seeds so if you wanted you could setup a screen to sift with. We sift a lot (tons) of sand to get it to the right fineness for our plaster/parge work on our home and butcher shop. Doing a pound of seeds would be quite easy. Maybe even a colander from the kitchen would work.

i have a question that i have been trying to figure out lately.

are these the same as sugar beets? could you use these to extract sugar?
i have been having the thought it would be cool to try to extract sugar from beets and looking them up to get info...the sites selling sugar beets say they are also good fodder but i figure there must be many different varieties...some better than others. these look different than the ones i have seen as "sugar beets"

well sorry, google just answered my question and said no.

but i have seen some interchange of "mangels" and "sugar beets" but maybe its that other people are also confused about it. its weird because usually its not hard to find specific info on species, subspecies or whatever...but trying to figure out what is up with sugar beets...none of the sites i was reading were very specific on the varieties, just that you need the right kind.

Sugar beets are different than mangels. We grow both in our winter paddocks during the summer to be forage for our livestock in the late fall and winter.

Sugar beets, mangels, turnips, radish--they all are different in food value and can complement each other if you learn your animals and land. But it isn't easy. I know enough to know that, but not what the right answer is for me.

Does anybody have a good primer on forage crops for mixed species animals? I can find info on using cover crops as forage for beef cattle from big ag, but nothing on dairy or running a mixed herd.