- Location
- Derbyshire
Would be nice to see some pictures! ... pleasejust come back in from putting tomorrows elec fence up, cow track to it, is soil, there are deepish cracks in it, 6/8 ins, it's not clay, and runs alongside our stream, which there, actually has some water in it. The ley, is in two halves, fed as one, so 50/50 dry ley with plantain and clover, the other prg and clover, the dry runs along under a wood, and very sandy, the bottom deep fertile loam. This is x2 grazing over, and there is a huge amount of grass on both pieces, way more than expected. Field was ploughed behind forage rape, fertile bit drilled last spring, the dry bit, rape, tines and autumn sown. Getting quite excited now, things seem to be turning round, at long last.
We made a very conscious effort last year, to leave longer residuals in that field, and it kept going last summer, amount of grass there, 6/7000, on a plate metre ? Av height, good 12 ins, no seed heads, l know if we had mowed it, it would be a biggish swathe, which means more grass out of grazing platform, for silage. It will be interesting to see how they eat that length grass, something some, have never seen ! The why, l think is the outcome of making lots of little changes, from seed variety, different grazing methods, different cultivations, and luck.
The h/rye and vetches are going great guns, agrominist today described it as 'a hell of a crop', few patches poor due to water logging, if we get some warm rain, it will go into super drive, rye is just starting to head, we aim to cut 18 may, which will be followed my maize, our contractor is trialling runner beans with his, l think we will wait and see how he gets on, instead of trying it ourselves, the trials for a seed house, so we can benefit from there spray usage.