- Location
- South Molton
Wow that's significantly more than we do.
3.5% this year, 3% last.
Don't think either of us is wrong btw
autumn re-seeding
- Thread starter som farmer
- Start date
3.5% this year, 3% last.
Don't think either of us is wrong btw
- Location
- South Molton
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Cows 'n grass
Member
- Location
- Modbury, South Devon
Plenty of time yet in the SW. We finish our forage rape on Wednesday and we'll try to have seeds in by Friday.
- Location
- South Molton
Finished ours 2 weeks ago, but drizzle hasn't been playing ball!
Grass seeds in today.
- Location
- Cornwall.
- Location
- South Molton
Correct it's for grazingNot enough red used there Sid.
- Location
- Cornwall.
- Location
- South Molton
No only cutting type persisus?
- Location
- somerset
how rep said, acre pack, fixates the price, not amount per acre, just a way of avoiding set kg/ac to price, we always buy kg, and add clover to it. Certainly brushing up on weed seedling identification, vetch is easy, reckon we might have plantain, and chickory sorted. Since having made the move to 'extras', there is a lot of plantain growing naturally, especially where the grass is a bit thin, or poached.
Here, I reckon 5 oct, to be 'safe' sowing, always better earlier, not always possible. What we have in, has certainly grown quickly, 22 acres this coming week, after slurry, 18 in already, 12 of which was overseeded.
- Location
- somerset
thats 40 acres, 18 in maize, 14 in kale, still 4 acres of rape to finish, on 160 usable acres total, just shows how hard the dry summers have hit us. Definitely growing hybrid rye, at 18 ton/acre, and a good crop of kale, and maize, after cutting, looking at 30 ton/ac, as silage, with the double cropping, with the added plus, it grew through the drought !
ollie989898
Member
Going over this again, for the uninitiated.
Selling in price per kilo is totally unnecessary, I was never interested in doling out cheap grass seed and neither should a farmer be buying it.
Grass may be sold in a 20 or 25kg pack if the customer requires it. Drilling men quite like it if they are going to shove in a straight like tetraflorum after maize and have 200 acres to do, for example although you can get it put in big bags if you prefer for that kind of job. An acre per pack keeps it simple for contractors who may be having to drill multiple farms.
For every mix I ever did the amount of kilos per pack varied according to the varieties going in it and the requirements of the customer. A lot of seed retailers cannot do this because they do not mix the stuff themselves, they are merely reselling a pack made by someone else with their margin on top. Similar to the maize job.
Is 6kg, 12kg or 13kg per acre not enough? No idea, tell me what is in it. Yes, you can have an 18kg/acre pack with red clover and the like in it if you really want but obviously the pack price will seem expensive. I've sold many leys that would seem expensive on a per acre basis, but customers never complained because they received exactly what they wanted. If you want dirt cheap you were speaking to the wrong bloke.
Grass seed is a far more technical area than many farmers realise. A moron can sell you something off a list of ready made mixtures, and if you are only interested in that then you might as well buy from whoever is willing to cut their arm off the most. It's not the sort of business I wanted to chase because a big seed warehouse has no sales people, no office team and virtually no associated cost to cover so can sell the stuff for whatever they can. That's chasing each other down the drain and as my clients would readily testify if someone offered them a completely daft deal I would often tell them to take it.
I do not know why a farm in Somerset is having persistent failures or problems with their grass. As a starting point, you need to soil test and a spade will soon tell you if the ground is tight or not. As I have repeatedly said many times in the past, a lot of the big modern tetraploids will not take punishment whatsoever, if you cut low repeatedly and damage the meristematic tissue or exhaust the root mass, they will die. Even diploids can't take it forever. The trend toward later and later grazing and even more poaching means you are robbing the plant and if you make bare dirt your weed grasses will be the first to move back in. Much depends on the management of a ley way after the stuff has emerged and seen itself through the winter. If you want chicory and plaintain in it then best start with land that is clean to begin with. I know what farmers in this region are like, 'nah won't bother putting ally on the wheat this year' and then wonder why the ley after it is diggered in perennial carp within 18 months. I have already offered to walk fields if people want, I am heading in that direction regularly now anyway. Just put a red outline on a bing map and send it to me. I will soon see what is going on if I walk a field over the space of several months. I often walked customers fields during silaging time to see what was afoot and because it is handy to see a field with basically no foliage in it.
It can get significantly hotter in other countries (although most grass seed is grown in climates far different to our own), which changes the disease profile. I've nothing against 'foreign' varieties (used a fair few NZ varieties in the past) but you need a company that has done the trials themselves to know how it behaves and what it can and cannot do. You can probably source some very cheap grass seed from breeders abroad but it will be a complete unknown for the end user because no one will know anything about it. Disease risks could be considerable. It's growing habit could also mean it is a complete pain in the chuff.
Selling in price per kilo is totally unnecessary, I was never interested in doling out cheap grass seed and neither should a farmer be buying it.
Grass may be sold in a 20 or 25kg pack if the customer requires it. Drilling men quite like it if they are going to shove in a straight like tetraflorum after maize and have 200 acres to do, for example although you can get it put in big bags if you prefer for that kind of job. An acre per pack keeps it simple for contractors who may be having to drill multiple farms.
For every mix I ever did the amount of kilos per pack varied according to the varieties going in it and the requirements of the customer. A lot of seed retailers cannot do this because they do not mix the stuff themselves, they are merely reselling a pack made by someone else with their margin on top. Similar to the maize job.
Is 6kg, 12kg or 13kg per acre not enough? No idea, tell me what is in it. Yes, you can have an 18kg/acre pack with red clover and the like in it if you really want but obviously the pack price will seem expensive. I've sold many leys that would seem expensive on a per acre basis, but customers never complained because they received exactly what they wanted. If you want dirt cheap you were speaking to the wrong bloke.
Grass seed is a far more technical area than many farmers realise. A moron can sell you something off a list of ready made mixtures, and if you are only interested in that then you might as well buy from whoever is willing to cut their arm off the most. It's not the sort of business I wanted to chase because a big seed warehouse has no sales people, no office team and virtually no associated cost to cover so can sell the stuff for whatever they can. That's chasing each other down the drain and as my clients would readily testify if someone offered them a completely daft deal I would often tell them to take it.
I do not know why a farm in Somerset is having persistent failures or problems with their grass. As a starting point, you need to soil test and a spade will soon tell you if the ground is tight or not. As I have repeatedly said many times in the past, a lot of the big modern tetraploids will not take punishment whatsoever, if you cut low repeatedly and damage the meristematic tissue or exhaust the root mass, they will die. Even diploids can't take it forever. The trend toward later and later grazing and even more poaching means you are robbing the plant and if you make bare dirt your weed grasses will be the first to move back in. Much depends on the management of a ley way after the stuff has emerged and seen itself through the winter. If you want chicory and plaintain in it then best start with land that is clean to begin with. I know what farmers in this region are like, 'nah won't bother putting ally on the wheat this year' and then wonder why the ley after it is diggered in perennial carp within 18 months. I have already offered to walk fields if people want, I am heading in that direction regularly now anyway. Just put a red outline on a bing map and send it to me. I will soon see what is going on if I walk a field over the space of several months. I often walked customers fields during silaging time to see what was afoot and because it is handy to see a field with basically no foliage in it.
It can get significantly hotter in other countries (although most grass seed is grown in climates far different to our own), which changes the disease profile. I've nothing against 'foreign' varieties (used a fair few NZ varieties in the past) but you need a company that has done the trials themselves to know how it behaves and what it can and cannot do. You can probably source some very cheap grass seed from breeders abroad but it will be a complete unknown for the end user because no one will know anything about it. Disease risks could be considerable. It's growing habit could also mean it is a complete pain in the chuff.
ollie989898
Member
Just one variety of grass?
- Location
- Cornwall.
why would quoting price per kilo equate to offering cheap grass seed?
Perhaps it makes life difficult for those chasing a bigger margin!
Over 60% of my mixtures are bespoke and mixed to their intended use.
ollie989898
Member
Is that an overseeding job or a full blown ley?
ollie989898
Member
why would quoting price per kilo equate to offering cheap grass seed?
Perhaps it makes life difficult for those chasing a bigger margin!
Over 60% of my mixtures are bespoke and mixed to their intended use.
I've never had a huge problem selling grass seed, the price is what I could do it for; as I said, I didn't chase anyone down the plughole. I offered something with value added. That does not appeal to everyone. If I was sat in an office with just a phone I'd have none of the costs associated with going on the road and could put stuff about for very little margin provided the volume was there. A bit like the big direct fertiliser traders do. I personally would not want to do that as I would never get satisfaction from it but different strokes from different folks.
I would assume most farmers can work out the price per kilo assuming they know the pack price and pack size.
Full blown ley.
Apart from disease risk, whats the problem?
Bo one here is that keen on it, the Irish don't mind so much tho
- Location
- somerset
this farmer in somerset, always digs a few holes, with a spade, very frequently, here, where the soil pans, you need to know, daft not to, but, we have been caught out, very badly, with 1 field this spring, despite running the subsoiler through the obvious bits. Again, soil testing, actually tells you, what fert etc you need, not what you think you need. But, having been blessed, with poor growth all summer, sim to the previous 2, was beginning to think, it was us. Thankfully, since rain, grass has gone mental, indicating, lack of moisture, so not, all our fault.
Though, when it took over 8 weeks, for rape, or weeds, to germinate, in some patches, quite a few patches, that sort of points that way. Not over sure on the lime amounts, told we needed, and will recheck some. But, we do try hard, to get both soil, and fert, right before reseeding. But, after 3 summers, of having to buy in forage, something has to change, so we are going down the 'drought' root, and trying several different things, we were going to try some 'dry' types of PRG, base, for one, but, can't try everything, or we won't know which has worked/not. Wind, can easily stunt grass/crops, in our block of rape, feeding now, starting at the bottom of the hill 30ins high, reducing to 10/12 ins, in the middle, where it took so long to germinate, back up to 30 ins, at the top, that is on an open, south facing slope, wind dried, i presume ! So Ollie, whatever, one does, with crops, if the weather aint right, your'e knacked.
Though, when it took over 8 weeks, for rape, or weeds, to germinate, in some patches, quite a few patches, that sort of points that way. Not over sure on the lime amounts, told we needed, and will recheck some. But, we do try hard, to get both soil, and fert, right before reseeding. But, after 3 summers, of having to buy in forage, something has to change, so we are going down the 'drought' root, and trying several different things, we were going to try some 'dry' types of PRG, base, for one, but, can't try everything, or we won't know which has worked/not. Wind, can easily stunt grass/crops, in our block of rape, feeding now, starting at the bottom of the hill 30ins high, reducing to 10/12 ins, in the middle, where it took so long to germinate, back up to 30 ins, at the top, that is on an open, south facing slope, wind dried, i presume ! So Ollie, whatever, one does, with crops, if the weather aint right, your'e knacked.