Countryside Seeds Ltd

Countryside Seeds Ltd

As of the 1st July a slight change to the business, it's become incorporated and with it a change of name. Farm machinery sales have not been a part of Farm Equip's business for a number of years and we felt now was the time for a new name to reflect more of what we do, so Countryside Seeds Limited was born.

We still offer friendly service and advice with up to date products at keen prices.

Company History

Farm Equip was launched by myself (Kevin) on the 1st January 1980. Initially selling farm consumables from the back of a yellow transit van.

Over the past few years the business has become almost predominately the sale of seed in its varies guises where it be a single bag of lawn seed to tonnes of grass/cereal seed.

I am in the very lucky position to be a distributor for some of the UK’s leading seed houses which include Barenbrug UK Ltd, DLF Trifolium Ltd, Grainseed Ltd and Soya UK to name a few.

I am more than happy to work with the customer on compiling their own mixture.

To contact me you may PM through the forum or I am very happy to be telephoned on 07881 804442.
Email: [email protected]

As like a lot of you I'm self employed so no 9-5 here so please telephone at your convenience.
 
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Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Herbal Graze
Long-term herbal grazing ley

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Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Alfalfa/Lucerne – Queen of Forage Crops and King of Drought Tolerance

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Posted on March 8th, 2019 by Klaus K. Nielsen
Chief Scientific Officer, DLF

Alfalfa is one of the few perennial (3-5 years) highly drought tolerance forage crops. When the going gets tough for most forages under drought – alfalfa keeps going. 2018 brought strong attention to crops, which keep producing under drought alleviating the economic impact of forage deficit.

Extending the growing zone for alfalfa
Plant breeding has increased focus on protein content and yield in many species. Increased interest for homegrown protein (autonomy), care about soil structure and soil microbiome, warning signs of more frequent summer drought, are all factors leading to more interest of alfalfa outside the traditional growing areas.

Higher in protein content- and yield per ha
Notwithstanding the observed negative correlation between dry matter yield and protein content in legume breeding, alfalfa breeders have managed to make progress for both traits = Increased protein yield per ha and increased protein per feeding unit. Alfalfa protein yield per ha even surpasses that of soybean.

Breeding and seed technology have made alfalfa growth easier and profitable
Most alfalfa seeds are now proposed pre-inoculated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, ready for drilling without additional operations or costs. The harvest window, which is the optimum time for cutting alfalfa, has been extended through breeding for lodging tolerance. The extra days/week can make the difference.

A “must” for organic farming
Alfalfa can be sown with narrow row spacing to increase competition with weeds or with wider row spacing for easier mechanical weed control. The huge improvement in soil structure and the fixated nitrogen release to the following crops (progressively over three years) makes alfalfa a great companion inorganic farming.

It’s all about rooting
The deep alfalfa roots are the explanation of many of the superior traits of alfalfa. The deep rooting ensures survival when water becomes scarce in the upper soil layers and contributes to the persistency. Our company has increased focus on roots and rooting via the root screening facility RadiMax, where scientist can monitor and identify breeding lines with the highest rooting potential.

Extracting proteins from the forage opens new perspectives
Together with University researchers and other industrial partners, DLF is actively participating in projects aiming at isolating grass- and legume-based proteins for monogastric animals. The first results are very promising, showing both high yields of extractable proteins as well as fibre pulp fractions with even higher feed intake in dairy cows than traditionally conserved forage.
 

Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Festulolium - The science behind
Hybrid grasses from DLF

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Festulolium is the name for a hybrid forage grass developed by crossing Meadow Fescue (Festuca pratense) or Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea) with perennial ryegrass
(Lolium perenne) or Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum).

This enables combining the best properties of the two types of grass and it is important to know that each of these grasses has its own characteristics and should not always be compared to each other.

The fescues contribute qualities such as high dry matter yield, resistance to cold, drought tolerance and persistence, while ryegrass is contributes with rapid establishment,
good spring growth, good digestibility, sugar content and palatability. The individual festulolium varieties contain various combinations of these qualities, but all are substantially better yielding than their parent lines.

While festuloliums have been around for many years, the true potential had never been pursued in earnest but its about to change.

Comprehensive and targeted breeding programme at DLF
DLF has developed a substantial breeding program in hybrid festulolium that has produced a unique range of hybrid festulolium varieties. After initial hybridization and subsequent selection on the hybrid progeny or back crossing the hybrid progeny to its parental lines, a wide range of varieties with varying characteristics and phenotypes has been created.

They are classified according to their degree of phenotypical similarity to the original parents, not to their genotype heritage. One can regard them as high yielding fescues with improved forage quality or as high yielding, more persistent ryegrasses.

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Great In Grass

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Location
Cornwall.
Tall fescue PLUS

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Tall fescue PLUS
Tall fescue PLUS is a hybrid tall fescue developed by crossing Meadow Fescue (Festuca pratense) or Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea) with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) or Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). There are two types of hybrid grasses; Ryegrass PLUS and Tall fescus PLUS and both types belong to the species festulolium.

When crossing multiple species it enables us to combine the best properties from each grass. The fescues contribute qualities such as high dry matter yield, resistance to cold, drought tolerance and persistence, while ryegrass is contributes with rapid establishment, good spring growth, good digestibility, sugar content and palatability. The individual festulolium varieties contain various combinations of these qualities, but all are substantially better yielding than their parent lines.

Tall fescue-Plus varieties from DLF includes:
  • Fojtan
  • Mahulena
  • Hipast
Morphologically and in terms of cultivation, these types resemble tall fescue.

They combine tolerance to frost, drought and heat and persistency of tall fescue with the better feed quality and rapid establishment of ryegrass. The result is a high quality “tall fescue” with excellent persistency.

Trials at the DLF research station in the Czech Republic are ongoing already for 15 years without any loss of stand or productivity.

Tall fescue-type festuloliums can be characterized by:

  • High seedling vigor
  • Earlier spring growth
  • High yield
  • High quality
  • Tendency for heading only in 1st cut
  • Very persistent
  • Upright growth
  • Tolerates drought and periodical flooding
  • Good winter hardiness
 

Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Ryegrass PLUS

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Ryegrass PLUS is a hybrid ryegrass developed by crossing Meadow Fescue (Festuca pratense) or Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea) with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) or Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). There are two types of hybrid grasses; Ryegrass PLUS and Tall fescus PLUS and both types belong to the species festulolium.

When crossing multiple species it enables us to combine the best properties from each grass. The fescues contribute qualities such as high dry matter yield, resistance to cold, drought tolerance and persistence, while ryegrass is contributes with rapid establishment, good spring growth, good digestibility, sugar content and palatability. The individual festulolium varieties contain various combinations of these qualities, but all are substantially better yielding than their parent lines.

Ryegrass-PLUS varieties from DLF include:
  • Perun
  • Perseus
  • Lofa
Morphologically, these varieties resemble italian ryegrass but with a persistency of up to four years. This type is suitable for both cutting and grazing.

The object of the DLF Breeding program is to retain the italian ryegrass yield and quality combined with resistance to rust and xanthomonas plus winterhardiness and persistency from the fescue.

In general, ryegrass-plus can be characterized by:

  • High seedling vigor
  • Very early spring growth
  • Very high yield
  • Slightly lower energy concentration and sugar content than ryegrass
  • Tendency for heading in regrowth
  • Upright growth
  • Better persistency than their ryegrass parent lines
 

Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Limagrain UK has launched 'Skyfall' this spring; a new hybrid brassica for dairy and beef cattle that can provide two crops in a season.

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Limagrain UK has launched Skyfall this spring; a new hybrid brassica for dairy and beef cattle that can provide two crops in a season. Sown between May and July, it will provide a highly nutritious leafy forage crop for grazing in 12 weeks. In trials Skyfall has produced between 30 and 35 tonnes/ha of a palatable soft-leaved forage. Where the crop is sown in the earlier part of the growing season, it can be grazed once and then closed up for regrowth before a second grazing period later in the season.
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Skyfall has deep narrow roots, which means that it can thrive in drier soils through summer,” says Limagrain’s forage crop director Martin Titley. “This deep rooting system and the crop’s hybrid vigour supports regrowth, enabling it to ‘bounce back’ and provide a second grazing crop.

“For example, a crop sown in early May can be grazed by the end of July and into August before being closed up for six to eight weeks for regrowth. It can then be grazed – for a second time – in late September and October. “To maximise the ‘bounce back’ potential of this hybrid brassica, 30kg/ha to 40kg/ha of nitrogen should be applied to the crop after the first grazing,” adds Mr Titley.

Regrowth can also be maximised by back-fencing the initial crop, ensuring some leaf and growing points are retained to allow regrowth to occur.

This hybrid brassica is an ideal crop to use as part of a grass reseed programme, sown after first-cut silage or spring grazing. “Rather than reseed immediately, Skyfall can be sown and grazed through summer and autumn, and then followed with a grass reseed. This will provide a break in the grass crop that disrupts the pest cycle and provides a natural control system.”

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Skyfall should be sown into a moist, fine seedbed at a rate of 5kg/ha. It will also benefit from applications of slurry and FYM prior to drilling.

Limagrain has introduced Skyfall for 2019 with limited supplies of seed call us to order. Further information is on the website: www.lgseeds.co.uk/skyfall
 

Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Teagasc Grazing Trials Explained

What Does the Ideal Grass Grazing Variety Look Like?



No. 1. Graze Out - – A variety that delivers 15 tonnes is not much use on a farm if the cow won’t eat it.

No. 2. Yield - If the variety grazes out you want it to produce as much as possible.

No. 3. Quality – Now you have your utilisable yield determined, that sward should be of the highest quality possible.

Teagasc Grazing Trials Explained:

Tegasc Moorepark recently published 2-year results from their grazing trials in Ireland. The aim of these grazing trials is to establish how well individual grass varieties are grazed by animals. To translate this into layman’s terms – the trial measures which varieties animals like to eat the most. As we know, the more palatable the grass the more the cow will eat; resulting in more milk or meat being produced from grass. This is an objective that every farmer aspires to.

Taking a look at the results from the recent Teagasc trials – there are two key measurements that are used to score the best varieties.

  1. What grazes out? – The varieties left of the white line in the graph below have very good graze out.
  2. What yields? – Varieties above the 12,000kg/ha white line in the graph below have very strong yields.
The top left quadrant of this graph is the sweetspot - where we want all varieties in our grass mixtures to be.



The Results Speak for Themselves:

Nifty – DLF Variety - Only Diploid in the top left “sweetspot” and has mainline seed availability.

Xenon – DLF Variety – The ideal grazing variety in our view but has little seed for the market.

Aspect – DLF Variety – Best variety with mainline availability of seed

Solas – DLF Variety – Very comparable to Abergain

Twymax – DLF Variety – Old DLF genetics, demonstrates DLF breeders have been getting it right long-term.

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Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Would you like to grow a crop that can produce over 80 tonnes of palatable feed per hectare? Bombardier Kale has a high protein content and doesn’t lose its D-Value too quickly, so it can be grazed from September to February and is suitable to be grown anywhere in the UK.

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Bombardier Kale
Huge fresh yields
Highly palatable with softer stems
Winter hardy
Clubroot tolerant
Bred for improved nutrition

If you used to grow kale, or have never grown it before, now might be the right time to give it a go!
 

Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Return on Investment with Reseeding
Farmers who don’t treat grassland as a crop are missing out on thousands of pounds worth of production if they rule out proper management and reseeding grass leys.

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The agricultural grass team at Barenbrug has calculated that farmers that reseed grass leys can expect a ten-fold return on investment as a minimum - depending on the focus of their farm. Using control *RGCL figures, Barenbrug estimates that reseeding with perennial ryegrasses has the potential farmers to achieve grass yields of around 11.48 t DM/ha on a two cut silage system. That’s enough grass to generate 134,000 MJ of energy or the equivalent of:
  • 25,283 litres of milk worth *13p/l = £6902
  • 2233kg lamb worth *15p/kg = £9166
  • 2481kg beef worth *11p/kg = £7792.
Adding autumn grazing of around 4.2t DM yield and 52,906MJ produced in addition to the 2 cuts total annual production stands at 15.65tDM/ha and 186,906MJ of energy.

In 2017, AHDB estimated the average yield of grass in the UK to be 7.9t DM/ha. Comparing seed sales to the temporary and permanent grass area in the UK, the UK reseeding rate stands somewhere between 2 and 4% per year meaning we are more likely to drop in overall grass production than gain.

Assuming the average yield is only 50% of potential, livestock farmers could be missing out on £4813 of milk, £6393 of lamb or £5435 of beef within the first 12 – 15 months of reseeding perennial species which will continue to perform after that initial period used to calculate.

With the average full reseed costing between £650 - £700*2 per hectare, we speak to many people who struggle to see past the initial expense but the potential production from increasing average productivity by even 20% more than covers the cost. Reseeding, when done properly and with attention to details WILL provide a huge return on investment. Commenting, Mhairi Dawson, Research & Development Manager at Barenbrug UK, said: “Future proofing your forage by investing in a reseed is a great way to improve productivity and resilience, and counter the weather-related problems we’ve seen over the past eighteen months. It can be difficult to comprehend the value of a reseed, until you see the impact it can have on production levels - particularly when growing conditions are unfavourable.”

Our biggest take home message is that we need all livestock farmer to also become grassland farmers. It's so important to get your feet into the field and assess what is going on rather than looking over the fence and seeing green. The Barenbrug Good Grass Guide is a simple grass condition scoring tool – a similar concept to livestock body condition scoring – to help growers make decisions to improve poor swards and maximise productivity from highly performing fields and also provides space for field records.

* RGCL = Recommended Grass and Clover List 2018-2019. Independent data.

*1 AHDB 5 year average price (2014 – 2018 inc)

*2 Calculated using National Association Agricultural Contractors Prices (2018-2019)

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A list of our Stubble Turnip varieties available for the coming year.

Appin
: A grazing turnip which is mostly leaf, with a leaf to root ratio of 80/20. Suitable for multi grazing.

Barabas: High leaf to bulb ratio resulting in high levels of protein. Fast Growing catch crop which is very suitable for grazing. Flexible sowing period with very good early vigour, UK Proven, highly palatable with good disease resistance, Quick to mature.

Barkant: A winter hardy, a highly digestible variety with high dry matter. Produces large tankard shaped roots which are palatable by both sheep and cattle. This is a proven and reliable stubble turnip.

Delilah: Delilah is ideal for finishing lambs and will produce huge, white tankard shaped bulbs. Good resistance to mildew.

Dynamo (Organic): produce heavy crops that are ideal for dairy grazing. Sowing throughout the summer until late August will provide feed through until January. Early sowing from late April -Ideal for fattening lambs from July onwards

Samson: Can produce huge, tankard-shaped purple bulbs which are very palatable to both sheep and cattle. In trials, Samson has shown to be preferentially grazed which can lead to higher intake and live weight gains.

Rondo: Rondo is a green-skinned variety, suitable for sheep or cattle. It has a very leafy growth habit with excellent disease resistance and can be utilised from September to early February. Rondo has excellent root anchorage which helps reduce wastage in the field.

Vollenda: A large-leafed, highly digestible variety with good early vigour and good disease resistance. It retains its palatability throughout the season, and is noted for its yield speed of growth and bolting resistance.

Skyfall (Hybrid Brassica) New! Skyfall is a new Hybrid brassica, bred to provide a palatable leafy feed which can be fed either in the summer, when grass growth might be limited, or sown later, to enable the crop to be grazed in the autumn or winter months. Skyfall’s hybrid ability enables regrowth potential and the possibility of producing extra feed.

Tyfon (Hybrid Turnip): Tyfon is ideally sown in the spring and utilised in the summer months when grass growth generally declines. Tyfon should not be sown too early as it is susceptible to bolting. Tyfon’s growth habit is very leafy with regrowth potential.
Is the appin turnip suitable to mix with IRG?
 

Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Did you know: for hard-wearing turf choose a hard-working mixture

If you want a wear tolerant turf, you must look at the mixture as a whole. The right mixture gives you not only a guarantee of wear tolerance, but also less maintenance and a lower risk.

All species have their own features and strengths. In a mixture the species cover each other’s blind spots and a single feature found in one specie, can never be a total solution. The “secret” lies in the combination of various species in turf mixtures. Combining species in a mixture creates a synergy effect and ensures the robustness that is needed for different traffic-weather conditions. Consequently, a single feature such as stolons, cannot stand alone as a solution in professional turf management.


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In the broadest definition a stolon is a lateral stem growing horizontally over the ground, rooting at the nodes and producing new plants from its buds. Stolons should not be confused with rhizomes, that are lateral stems growing in the soil.
A dense and wear tolerant turf is key to a successful sports field. None of the attributes evaluated on top-recommended sports lists are connected to stolons. Actually the top positions in official sport turf lists are dominated by dense ryegrasses. A mixture combining features of multiple species, offer instant stress handling 24/7.
The road to wear tolerance:

Identify your need and resources
Make a careful selection of the right turf mixture fitted for the purpose
With the right management you can now enjoy a turf that lives up to your expectations

For details on the Masterline range of amenity mixtures and wildflowers please click on the link: See our mixtures to the professional segment here

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Great In Grass

Member
Location
Cornwall.
Countryside Seeds are pleased to offer the complete range of Game Maize mixtures from DLF.

Game Maize is still one of the most popular crops used for cover and feed.

Nearly all maize varieties used for game cover have at some stage been commercial forage or grain varieties. As these varieties are superseded by newer hybrids, stocks of those being replaced diminish and DLF carefully select the most suitable of these for their game cover purposes

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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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

  • 1,285
  • 1
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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