Crop Farming & Harvest

After spending the winter months writing fertiliser plans, budgeting and attending technical meetings, my phone is now starting to ring with questions around nitrogen application.

Modern grass varieties and high quality mixtures have the potential to deliver superior yields and excellent feed values, but often grassland management and basic nutrition is overlooked, and new leys fail to deliver their full value.

Reseeding an existing ley can lead to a significant return on investment. Within several years ‘weed grasses’ will ingress into a sward – particularly if the field has experienced poaching or after a hard winter. These ‘weed grasses’ have poor quality characteristics compared to ryegrass varieties from the Recommended List. These include poor digestibility and a poorer response to fertiliser, as well as not converting to meat and milk as efficiently as ryegrass.