Grass seed mix for grazing

[Andrew1983]

I have always put in a general purpose mix for cutting an grazing. I’m wondering is a sole purpose grazing mix worth looking at, is there any benefit to it? The long term Leys we have normally get cut the first year then sheep grazed until they are established enough to stand cows in the 2nd year on. Recommendations please.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Hard to comment with out a full breakdown of your farm and system
Is it mainly sheep or cattle will you be cutting at all and what time scale . Medium or long term,
Sheep farmers are tending moving to more rotational grazing now so we can include more Tetraploid Intermediate High D value grasses as tight grazing is not such an issue. We can also include large leaf clovers that don't like tight grazing either, Red Clover is getting increasingly popular but have to be careful on inclusion rate if you have a lot of breeding ewes
I could get my team to look at your system and send you a plan if you like , just pm me an email address, we don't like to sell anyone seed until we have worked through this
For someone who is rotation grazing then cut and graze is not such an issue and can be beneficial to the sward
Although if you did want a specific cutting ley then it is normal to tighten up the heading dates

 

[Derrick Hughes]

To give you an idea about knowing your customers. I have one from Kent who wants to overseed Cutting Fatten Lambs and Graze Horses on the same land . I did try and explain that you can't be putting horses on a clover rich ley with Sugar Rich high index grasses
Off the shelf seed mixtures are a thing of the past , of all the orders I've taken this spring so far not one has been a standard mix