Getting to Grips with Grazing Grass-The G4ce project !

Use it or lose it-that is the key message when it comes to grazing. Two Farming Connect Red Meat Development Programme demonstration farmers, and a further two beef and sheep farms have been actively involved in a new project run by the Grassland Development Centre, demonstrating and evaluating different methods of measuring grass, aiming to maximise output of meat from grazed grass.

The four farms (on Anglesey, two in Powys, and one in Ceredigion) will be measuring and recording grass growth and using the information to manage grazing to reduce costs. The key to this is reducing waste- as a new grass leaf grows every 11 days on average during the grazing season, the oldest leaf dies so unless it is grazed it will be lost from production.

The farmers been recording monthly information on grass growth, and assessing how easy is to measure grass, and using the results to  help them make decisions about when move stock, provide supplementary feed or shut up for silage. This has been shared with other farms in Wales via a monthly newsletter- which can be found at the following links-

2011 Closing newsletter    August 2011    June 2011    May 2011   April 2011   March 2011     

Keith Williams, beef and sheep farmer from Hundred House has improved his leys through reseeding and sward lifting, and was keen to take part in the project, helping him use the extra grass he is growing as efficiently as possible and reduce his costs. Keith said “I want to make better use of grass- by understanding how and when it grows I can find out how to make the most of it, and reduce my input costs”.

Grass cages to measure growth on the farms since February with results included within the newsletters, whilst each farm has been using a different method of grass measuring to keep track of their grazing management-

Richard Rogers of Bodrida, Anglesey has been using a rising plate meter, and the Feed reader, sonic plate meter. This is a quad mounted, GPS guided meter, which takes up to 10 grass height measurements per second, and is able to wirelessly connect with an office computer, to provide accurate readings on grass growth as often as you want them! More information on this can be found here.

Using the sonic meter, and carrying out analysis of his grass, has enables Richard to keep a closer eye on his grass growth, and how he can expect it to perform- more information on his grass growth can be found here.