Grassland Development Centre
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 link-
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.
