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.

 

[Great In Grass]

Grass into Gold - Farm’s quest for more clover.

Carl and Ruth Walters from Low Hullock Howe near Penrith joined the Barenbrug Grass Into Gold Scheme in 2017 after a number of years being unsatisfied with grass performance.

 

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The story of grass:

 

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Barenbrug varieties their recent additions to the Barenbrug grass variety portfolio.

 

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Trialling in the British Isles Cropvale, Clonakilty & Churchfield.

 

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Return on Investment with Reseeding.

 

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Download the BarForage catalogues for England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland plus Barenbrug's Beef, Dairy & Sheep guides by following this link: http://bit.ly/Ag-Resources

 

[Great In Grass]

Discover ENSIGN RED from our BarForage range. It’s a blend of red clovers which balances production through the growing season while maintaining excellent persistency and disease resistance. Find out more here: http://bit.ly/EnsignRed

 

[Great In Grass]

Last Call for Sowing New High Yielding Forage Kales

Livestock producers looking for a high yielding forage that offers good feed value and a flexible feeding period should sow a crop of forage kale. And, says Limagrain’s forage crop director Martin Titley, opting for the latest variety Bombardier can help tip the scales in favour of improved digestibility and feed value.



“It’s the second season in the UK for Bombardier and it was highly successful in trials and on farm in 2018,” he says. “Sown up to mid-July, it survived in dry conditions and provided a high feed value grazing crop in autumn through to the end of January.”

Results from Limagrain’s innovation site in Lincolnshire showed fresh weight yields of 80 tonnes per hectare and nine to 11 tonnes of dry matter per hectare. Dry matter content was 13.5% and digestibility of 72.2%.

“The relative dry matter yield for this new variety was 18% above the control variety, that’s 1.74 tonnes more from each hectare – a real boost for forage stocks.”

Bombardier has been bred for improved stem and leaf utilisation, and this has provided a higher feed value crop. Poor stem quality, that may have been 60% to 70% of the total yield, has held back the feed value of forage kale. The softer and more digestible stems seen in these new varieties bring improved feed value and utilisation of the crop.

“In the past, farmers have faced a bit of a dilemma when it comes to kale,” adds Mr Titley. “If the kale crop is grazed well, then crop utilisation is good, but the poor feed value in the stem will limit liveweight gain. A less well-grazed crop, where a proportion of the stem is left, will achieve better liveweight gains but poorer crop utilisation.

“Marrow stem kales like Bombardier are highly digestible and have improved dry matter yields and utilisation potential, can overcome this dilemma.”

Kale should be drilled in spring and before mid-July at a seed rate of 5kg per hectare, and growers are encouraged to opt for varieties that are club root tolerant and where the seed can be supplied with a fungicide seed treatment.

“The great benefit of a kale crop is its flexibility,” says Mr Titley. “It can be used any time from September to February, so it is ideal for outwintering production systems and it is a popular choice for dairy young stock, beef cattle and sheep.”

Kale – the facts:

Sowing rate 4-5kg/ha
Growing costs £496/ha
Dry matter 9-11t/ha
Crude protein 16-17%
ME 10-11kg DM

 

[Great In Grass]

New highly digestible kale shows its colours

Kevin Robinson will be growing kale again in 2019 – and he will opt again, after the success in 2018, for a new variety with more digestible stems than previous kale varieties.

Kevin, who manages the farm for Marigold de Quincey, drilled 2ha of the new kale variety Bombardier in mid May 2018 and started strip grazing the field in late October.

The 40 spring-calving suckler cows took to the kale immediately. “I gave them a 10-meter strip to start with, then I moved the fence 2m each day,” says Kevin. “They cleaned up the crop well and ate all the stems and leaves; there wasn’t much left at the end of the day and they were waiting for me to move the fence each morning.”

The cows were back-fenced so they could run back on to the grass. They also had access to straw and feed blocks as part of their diet. “It provided valuable extra winter forage. We overwinter the cattle outdoors – they only come in to calve, so producing as much home-grown forage – of good feed quality – is important to us,” adds Kevin,” who runs the mainly Hereford cross cows on his mixed arable, beef and sheep unit at Upton Magna, Shrewsbury.

The kale seed was drilled on a rough piece of ground that had been badly rutted following a wet winter. The land was disced and then power harrowed and Kevin sowed the seed from a spinner off his quad bike.

“The soil is thin on this part of the farm, and we didn’t irrigate the crop,” he says, adding that the only help he gave the crop was 40 units of liquid fertiliser. “We had no rain at all for a few months; it’s amazing how it survived. I think there must have been just enough moisture to get it going and then enough leaf cover to prevent it drying out completely. At one point the whole crop wilted but it was saved by rain a few days later.”

An extended summer and warm autumn held temperatures above the seasonal norm and the kale kept growing. Even when the cows moved onto the crop in late October it was still growing.

“It was trial and error,” he adds. “But the cattle did well on this kale crop and we grazed it until mid January. They then moved onto grass before coming indoors late February, ahead of calving.”

Kevin plans to follow the kale with a grass reseed and, impressed with the robustness of the crop, he’s growing more Bombardier kale on another field ready for winter grazing in 2019.

More mileage from kale

Poor stem quality – that may have been 60% to 70% of the total yield, has often limited the feed value of forage kales but new varieties, that have softer and more digestible stems, have improved the feed value and utilisation of the crop.

“Bombardier is a good example,” says Limagrain’s forage crops manager Martin Titley. “It was a new variety to the UK market in Spring 2018 and has been bred for improved stem and leaf utilisation.”

Trials have shown that this new variety has a digestibility of 72.2% and a dry matter content of 13.5%, with a relative dry matter yield of 18% above the control variety, that’s 1.74 tonnes more from each hectare. It is expected to produce between 70 tonnes to 80 tonnes of fresh yield per hectare and between nine and 11 tonnes per hectare of dry matter.

“In the past, farmers have faced a bit of a dilemma when it comes to kale,” adds Mr Titley. “If the kale crop is grazed well, then crop utilisation is good but the poor feed value in the stem will limit liveweight gain. A less well-grazed crop, where a proportion of the stem is left, will achieve better liveweight gains but poorer crop utilisation.

“Marrow stem kales like Bombardier are highly digestible and have improved dry matter yields and utilisation potential, can overcome this dilemma.”

Kale is best drilled in May or early June at a seed rate of 5kg per hectare. Farmers are encouraged to opt for varieties that are club root tolerant and where the seed can be supplied with a fungicide seed treatment.

“The great benefit of a kale crop is its flexibility,” says Mr Titley. “It can be used any time from September to February, so it is ideal for outwintering production systems and it is a popular choice for dairy young stock, beef cattle and sheep.”

 

[Great In Grass]

Elevation Winter Oilseed Rape

New for recommended list 2018/2019
(Northern Region)

Elevation was the highest yielding variety for gross output in UK trials, 2017.

Please, get in touch for a price.

 

[Great In Grass]

VOLLENDA STUBBE TURNIPS - Early Bird Offer Summer 2019 (Limited time only)

From Monday 15th July 2019 we will be running our early bird offer for Vollenda stubble turnips, please get in touch for prices.

 

[Great In Grass]

The biggest threat to grassland productivity is complacency
Take time to get your feet into the fields…

Silage season is well underway across all of the UK with many in the South and West now looking at third cuts. Many beef and sheep systems and those in later areas in the North had big bulks although broken weather patterns when grass was at the ideal growth meant many were cut later than many would have liked resulting in slightly lower qualities. After winter 2017/2018, having full clamps and extra bales brings welcome relief.


Winter 2018/2019 was very kind with most reporting good volumes throughout the season and into spring for grazing platforms and decent silage yields where crops have been taken and, aside from the much drier conditions in the East, the biggest threat to grassland productivity throughout the UK is complacency. When there is plenty of grass, this is precisely the right time to invest in a reseed because there is a greater capacity to increase stocking density and free up the poorest field on the farm for reseeding.


The overall average reseeding rate in the UK is somewhere between 2% and 4%, with grassland productivity estimated to be as low as 55% of potential, so the scope for gain is vast. Take time to get your feet into the fields and walk them as well as thoroughly analysing silage results this spring to identify which of your fields is the poorest performing; this is the field you should target your efforts on, it will not necessarily be the oldest one. The Barenbrug Good Grass Guide is a free tool that can help you condition score your grass in order to prioritise which fields need immediate investment.


The Baillies from Grass into Gold farm Longlea in Lanarkshire fared very well in 2018. Being on a heavy farm, the dry year followed by a spring with less rainfall than average favoured them, but even so, their first cut yields were up in 2019. Silage had to be done in 2 batches as the Italian ryegrass was ready ahead of the perennial ryegrass-based swards. Charlotte Baillie comments “The main perennial crop did get a bit wet but was kicked out before lifting and there seems to be very little water coming from the pit. We also think that our extensive GPS mapping and subsequent applications of copious amounts of lime has been essential in improving our yields. We were able to get slurry and fertiliser on with ease after the first cut which was followed by plenty of rain to encourage regrowth, and the 2nd cut was done 6 weeks after the 1st with the aim to complete 3rd cut in another 6 weeks. The Italians are on a 5-week schedule.”


The Baillies are paying very close attention to details such as soil conditions and, particularly with the Italian ryegrass, growth stage to optimise the quality of the grass which is out of sync with the perennials. They have also layered the silage pits with a 2nd cut on top of the 1st to try and improve access to different qualities when feeding. Charlotte concludes “We are focusing heavily on our grassland management to allow us to maximise milk from forage and keep the purchased feed costs down. As things stand, we will have enough grass forage, so we don’t think we will need to do any whole crop, meaning we will have more home-grown grain and straw for winter too.”


Download your copy of The Barenbrug Good Grass Guide

 

[Great In Grass]

Now’s the time to take a break

Sowing a high feed value forage crop and taking a ‘cereal break’ is a win-win for mixed arable and livestock units...

Sowing a high feed value forage crop and taking a ‘cereal break’ is a win-win for mixed arable and livestock units.

Give the arable crop rotation a break and sow a forage crop this autumn. This is the advice from Limagrain’s Martin Titley, who says that better weed control and boosting home-grown feed supplies are just two of the advantages.

“Growing a forage crop on arable land post-harvest is getting more and more relevant on mixed cereal and livestock units,” he says. “It will definitely help weed control by breaking the life cycles of some damaging weeds and diseases.

“And the forage crop – and any grazing livestock – will add organic matter to the soils. This is especially valuable in nutrient depleted soils.”
Growing consecutive cereal crops is becoming more challenging. “There are issues surrounding pest and disease control in our cereal crops, and soil structure and condition warrants attention on many arable units,” he adds. “Rotations with forage crops are now far more sustainable than some of our previous arable practices.”

Forage crops, such as fast-growing brassica and root crops, and short-term grass leys can be sown post-harvest to give a much-needed break in the cereal rotation, as well as providing a valuable feed crop.

“Roots and brassicas can be grazed off ahead of a spring crop, or ahead of a grass reseed. And leaving a grass ley down for two years or more will help break the blackgrass cycle too.”

Grass and forage crops boost the soil organic matter and manure from grazing animals is slowly released which can then be used by the arable crops that follow in the rotation.

And the new forage crop varieties with improved growth and feed values add to the attractiveness of post cereal forage crops. These have been shown to promote yields, livestock growth rates and performance.

“A good example is the new rape/kale hybrid variety Unicorn that can be sown until late August. It has produced energy values of 11.2 MJ per kilo of dry matter and dry matter contents of 12.4% on our Lincolnshire trial site, making it one of the UK’s best performing rape/kale hybrid brassicas.”

Unicorn is a fast-growing leafy catch crop and should be ready for grazing within 14 weeks. Sown after cereals, it will give an ideal feed for finishing lambs, ewes or dairy cattle early winter.

“Stubble turnips and forage rape are two more crops that can be sown up until the end of August. They’re also quick to establish and some hardier varieties can be left for grazing over winter.”

A crop of stubble turnips after winter barley is ideal for finishing lambs. It’s ready for grazing by the end of October, and a hectare of stubble turnips will provide 40 days of grazing for 100 lambs. “This is ideal for farmers who are looking to sell lambs early in the season, when prices tend to be higher,” he adds.

And if we have a dry autumn, Mr Titley suggests those with mixed units look at forage rye that can be sown as late as October, following maize or cereals. “This gives an early bite in spring, up to three weeks’ ahead of Italian ryegrass.

“Yields are typically between five and six tonnes of dry matter per hectare. Some farmers will graze the crop, but it can also be cut for forage and stored, boosting conserved feed supplies.”
Catch Crop Considerations

• Look at the crops available
• Tailor your catch crop and the area required to match livestock feed requirements
• Look at growing costs verses feed value, a good catch crop provides a cost-effective winter forage
• Look at the varieties on offer – some are better than others in yield disease resistance and winter hardiness. UK trial results show significant differences. For example, there is a 20% yield difference between some stubble turnip varieties and this equates to more than one tonne of dry matter per hectare

 

[Great In Grass]

Barenbrug UK will be at the UK Dairy Day on 11th September at The International Centre, Telford, Shropshire, TF3 4JH.

Drop by Stand L13 to meet them!

 

[Great In Grass]

Discover the top performers
Breeding goals are also about seed yield.

The DLF plant breeders work continuously to explore better traits in forage and turf for the benefit of customers.

That being higher yields, better quality, higher disease or drought tolerance, and more resource-efficient varieties

But plant breeding is also about selecting varieties with a high seed yield potential to get a sustainable and stable seed yield in seed crops.

That is why DLF R&D every year test thousands of candidates for seed yield potential to discover and combine good seed yielders with high performing varieties.

The film gives you a view of this work.

 

[Great In Grass]

How to find the optimal harvest time in grass seed.

DLF's Production Manager, Birthe Kjærsgaard will take you through the optimal harvest time for fescue, red fescue, and Perennial Ryegrass.
(with English subtitles)

 

[Great In Grass]

Why you should be reseeding this autumn
The advantages of an autumn reseed

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Why you should be reseeding this autumn
With many areas seeing an abundance of grass growth, particularly compared to 2018, dismissing an autumn reseed this year could result in farmers missing out on thousands of pounds worth of production.

Whilst walking many problematic fields (again) this year, there is definitely more grass around however these are the fields which were poorly performing before, are still the worst on the farm. These are the ones costing farmers money rather than contributing to the bottom line and if another early winter or late spring arrives, this issue will be compounded further.

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 *127.3p/l = £6902
• 2233kg lamb worth *1410.5p/kg = £9166
• 2481kg beef worth *1314.1p/kg = £7792

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 annual average grass yield is only 50% of potential, livestock farmers could be missing out on over £4000 of milk, £6000 of lamb or £5000 of beef within the first 12 – 15 months of reseeding perennial species which, were well managed, will continue to perform for a number of years.

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 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.”

*RGCL = Recommended Grass and Clover List 2018-2019. Independent data.
*1AHDB 5 year average price (2014 – 2018 inc)
*2Calculated using National Association Agricultural Contractors Prices (2018-2019)

 

[Great In Grass]

Grassland and Muck 2020
DLF announced as the official seed partner to Grassland and Muck 2020
DLF Seeds are very excited and proud to be the Official Seed Partner to Grassland and Muck 2020.
242 acres of grass seed is being mixed today ready for drilling at the end of August.

The triennial Grasslands and Muck event has long been the primary show in the British Isles for those with a vested interest in all aspects of grassland management.
This presents a wonderful synergy for DLF Seeds where grass breeding, production, and supply is integral and core to our position as market leader in this sector.
The event offers us the opportunity to showcase our latest concepts in growing plots as a living catalogue, potentially a far more powerful message than a printed page.
At DLF our mission is to link seeds with science yet keep that closely allied to farm practice for maximum relevance – what better partnership to exhibit this than Grasslands and Muck 2020?

 

[Great In Grass]

Festulolium – Evolution is Speeded Up By Plant Breeding

Klaus K. Nielsen: Chief Scientific Officer, DLF


Sometimes plant breeding can open new doors by combining the best traits of two species. Festulolium is a relatively new species, where plant breeders have succeeded in making a successful match between two grass species – creating a new product combining the best of both parents.

Festulolium is grass genera developed by crossings between the fescue and ryegrass species. Such crossings are possible due to the close genetic affinity of both genera. It is assumed, that present ryegrass and wide leaved fescue species were phylogenetically developed from the same ancestor, that was similar to present fescues. Festulolium species are known from the nature as result of random crossings between ryegrasses and fescues. But up to now, naturally developed Festulolium’s have problems with fertile seed production. This is where R&D and plant breeding are able to speed up the selection process of suitable Festulolium genotypes for agricultural purpose.

The motive for Festulolium plant breeding is to combine the excellent yield and feeding quality of ryegrass with the persistency and stress tolerance of fescue in one variety. Such a combination of agricultural traits is very relevant in a period of climatic changes where we have to keep up yields in more extreme environmental conditions.

The first Festulolium varieties were listed in the USA and the UK already in 60’s and 70’s in the last century, but their agricultural quality was not on level with their parent species at that time. The first varieties used in agriculture were listed in the end of 80’s and beginning of 90’s in Germany, former Czechoslovakia and Poland. Most of those varieties are still available in the market.

At present, three Festulolium species are available for agricultural purpose:

• Festulolium braunii (Lolium multiflorumx Festuca pratensis)
• Festulolium loliaceum (Lolium perennex Festuca pratensis)
• Festulolium krasanii= Festulolium pabulare (Lolium multiflorumx Festuca arundinacea)

Many grass breeding companies worldwide have breeding programmes in Festulolium and just now 58 varieties are included on the OECD variety list. Of these, 21 varieties originate from DLF R&D programme. Most of the varieties are classified to the Festulolium braunii species.

With registration of the first Festulolium varieties, the question arose how to find a suitable use of Festulolium as new agricultural species. In Central Europe we started development trials in the middle of the 1980’s, where single varieties were tested in pure stands or in mixtures with Red clover and Lucerne for arable land or grassland mixtures. Trials were made on many locations in former Czechoslovakia and Poland from lowland up to mountain areas, and these trials resulted in recommendations for mixtures suited for a wide agricultural range under Central Europe climatic conditions and managements.

Now single Festulolium varieties are stabile components of a wide range of mixtures well accepted by farmers in Central European countries. Farmers in other European countries have also embraced this new forage species as an interesting choice, when climatic conditions requires innovative managements.

 

[Great In Grass]

Root exudates affect soil stability, water repellency - Research digs into delicate plant, soil interactions

As the growing season progresses, you might not notice much about what's happening to plants under the soil. Most of us pay attention to new shoots, stems, leaves, and eventually the flowers and crop we intend to grow. We might think of roots as necessary, but uninteresting, parts of the crop production process.

Paul Hallett and his team disagree. They focus on what's going on in the soil with the plant's roots.

The zone of soil that surrounds a plant's roots is called the rhizosphere. It's the combination of the Latin words for "root" and "area." And it's a busy location for important-but hidden-crop production processes.

In the rhizosphere, plants make a variety of chemical compounds called exudates. Hallett and fellow researchers at the University of Aberdeen look at the effects that exudates have on the plant and surrounding soil community. Their unique work takes small-scale measurements near the surface of the roots. The properties here can be very different from the rest of the soil.

"Roots continuously secrete chemicals into the soil as a way to liberate nutrients that are attached to soil particles," says Hallett. In human digestion, the stomach secretes gastric juices to help break up food; exudates are the plant equivalent of gastric juices.

Hallett describes exudates' chemical composition as "a veritable cocktail or 'buffet' of resources for anything in the rhizosphere." In addition to helping plants procure nutrients, exudates are food sources for the microbes that are an important part of the soil microbiome.

Exudates also have an important role in holding soil together. Roots and fungi that live in the soil hold together larger clumps of soil, but exudates work on the micro level. Like glue, they hold together soil particles in important mechanical networks. Soil scientists call these soil networks aggregates.

Whereas the binding effects of roots and fungal networks are usually long-term, exudates' influence on the soil can be fleeting. "Root exudates won't last in their original form for long in the soil, as they get consumed and transformed by microbes," says Hallett. This process can completely destroy the exudate or create even better compounds for binding soil particles.

"Plant root exudates have a massive impact on aggregate formation," says Hallett. "They do this through a number of ways, including acting like glues or changing how quickly the rhizosphere wets up and dries with rainfall and evaporation."

Hallett's team researched the effects of exudates on different types of soil. They researched environments with a sandy loam soil texture versus a clay loam texture. This is important because chemical reactions between the exudates and soil particles vary with soil type.

They also researched various plant exudates from barley and corn. They found that barley's exudates increased how well soil particles are bound together, but not as much as corn. They also found that while barley exudates didn't impact soil water repellency, corn exudates did.

Research such as Hallett's shows that during the growing season-and beyond-there are delicate interactions between each plant and the surrounding soil. All of these interactions affect the amount of water that is captured by soil and absorbed by plants. Production of exudates also affects how well the plants can pull vital nutrients out of the soil, and even affects the soil in the rhizosphere.

Future research for Hallett's team will include looking at exudate production along plants' roots. They'll also look at the age of roots, and whether younger roots produce exudates with different soil-holding and water-absorbing qualities.



Story Source:

Materials provided by American Society of Agronomy. Original written by Susan V. Fisk. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.