Fodder Beet is a hardworking stock feed crop, grown for its large, nutritious roots and edible leaves that carry animals through the leaner months of autumn and winter. Each plant puts its energy into a single palatable root that can reach up to 10kg, backed up by a good crop of leaf, so a modest patch can go a surprisingly long way when the paddocks slow down. If you're running a lifestyle block with a few animals to feed, this is the crop that earns its keep. Cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and rabbits will all happily work through it, whether you chop it up and feed it out by hand or simply hang a whole root in the enclosure and let chickens or rabbits peck away at it for enrichment as much as nutrition. It's an old-fashioned solution to a problem that hasn't gone away: how to keep stock well fed once the grass stops growing. Older gardeners and those with a soft spot for heritage names may know this crop as mangelwurzel, or mangold, a name still used on lifestyle blocks and in home paddocks around the country. Fodder beet is the modern continuation of that same idea: a beet bred specifically for stock feed rather than the table, selected for a big, dense root and reliable dry matter content. This variety is orange-skinned with white flesh, and its dry matter content of 11 to 14 percent means you're feeding out real substance, not mostly water. It also has good bolting tolerance, so a warm early spell after sowing is less likely to send plants to seed before they've bulked up properly. Sown between September and November, it's a straightforward crop to fit into the same window as your other spring plantings, ready to feed out through the following autumn and winter when it's needed most. Sowing Fodder Beet Direct sow Fodder Beet from September through to November into deep, free-draining soil in a full sun position. Sow at a rate of around 30g per 100m² (3kg per hectare), aiming for a soil temperature of 10–20°C. Germination is reliable, typically 95%, and takes 7–14 days. Once seedlings are through, thin to 15cm apart within the row, with rows spaced 30cm apart, so each plant has room to bulk up its root properly. Caring for Fodder Beet As a biennial grown for its first season root, Fodder Beet doesn't ask for much once it's established. Keep the bed weed free while plants are young and roots are still developing, since weeds compete hardest in those early weeks. Plants grow to around 60cm in height, with the bulk of that energy going into the root below ground rather than top growth. Harvesting and Feeding Fodder Beet Fodder Beet reaches maturity in 100 to 120 days from direct sowing, though many growers leave it in the ground and feed it off gradually through autumn and winter as needed rather than lifting the whole crop at once. You can graze it in place, lift roots and chop them for feeding out, or hang a whole root up for poultry and rabbits to work on at their own pace. Either way, both the roots and the leaves are useful, so little goes to waste.
