Covid 19.. Milk price impact?

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
do you think, that breeding ever better grasses, each year, the figures are 'in an ideal' scenario ? we have not been having a particularly good production from our leys over the last couple of years, two years of drought have hammered them, and us. And yet, we have grass keep, on a 4 acre field, where its really difficult to push an elec stake in, two bands of visible stone, and yet that grass is growing, another field in the village, harder you graze it, the quicker it greens up, and here, the so called top notch ley mixes, struggle when stressed, we have put in a mix containing cocksfoot, and timothy, and drought resistant prg this spring, I wait to be impressed, by what is growing on those pp, perhaps we should be looking at fesques, crested dog tails, and a few I've forgotten the name of !
 
Location
West Wales
Could be. One of the reasons I wanted to go to grassland to quiz the breeders. Damn stuff goes to head so fast it’s near impossible to make quality silage after 1st cut

I would normally agree with you but one thing that has been apparent so far this year is just how far reseeds are out performing lays that are 4years+ old.
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Yes.

Each tiller heads on its own. Reproduction stimulated mainly by day length, with other factors at play too. Switches back to vegetative to on a similar basis. Last year was an outlier. We had a lot more stem than usual in our 3rd cut at start of August. Last year was an exceptional growth year here.

Its easy to make quality after 1st cut, but not with stress

It depends on your situation. Ability to make quality on this farm is dictated heavily by the weather. Second can be extremely challenging if you take an early first, as it goes off so quickly. It can lash here for two or three weeks without a window, just when we need to cut. And there's nothing we can do about it. That's not easy to take.
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Essential to avoid Italians & early PRG - buggers for putting heads up
Int & late PRG easier to manage IMO

Partly why we have started to switch away from cutting leys to grazing leys under a multicut system to replicate grazing but weather is the key to all this.

Going to cut the pubes of regrowth now in order to salvage some leaf rather than too much stem and hope for rain to stimulate regrowth for 3rd cut
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
How many times will 1 individual grass plant head? If head is removed, will it head again?
I don't know the answer, but, thinking it can be a cause of 'modern' leys not lasting, if, as has happened here, leys have been under severe stress, for the last 2 years, by drought, the 'target' the plant strives towards, is setting a seed head, so, if under stress, is the plant putting everything in to seed, at the expense of developing its root system, if correct, certainly explains why our leys are dyeing off before their time ! Interesting line of thought, perhaps older varieties can withstand stress, better than the newer ones, they are, after all, tested under ideal conditions !
 

Tirglas

Member
Location
West wales
Would it not help to let it run to seed once every few years? Self overseeding if it happens to rain at the expense of what especially if a light stressed crop just bale a few bales an acre for dry cows
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Can't put a time on it to be honest. Always plough, but usually not in a hurry to do it inside 8-10 years. Grazing varieties here. All depends on what damage we've done in wet weather, or whether docks have had the upper hand at some point. Have one remaining field I haven't seen ploughed, and I'm forty, and it's consistently a top performer in silage, even though it was sowed all those years ago for paddock grazing. Won't be touching it if I can keep the docks in hand.

I only reseed if it is warranted. Time really has nothing to do with it.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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