A total of 50 British farmers have been selected to be part of GrassCheck – a major research project looking at new grassland technologies and techniques.
GrasscheckGB aims to improve grassland productivity and pasture utilisation on beef and sheep farms through a new grassland performance monitoring network.
GrassCheck
It comes on the back of the programme’s success in Northern Ireland.
GrassCheckGB aims to benchmark current and potential performance, support grassland research and encourage uptake of innovative grassland management practices such as pasture management and nutrient budgeting.
A total of 27 pilot beef and sheep farms, including nine in Wales, have been chosen alongside 23 dairy farms, representing a wide range of geographical areas and farm systems.
Pilot farmers will measure grass each week throughout the growing season and take grass samples. They will also have an automatic weather station installed on their farm to record data such as temperature, rainfall and sunshine hours.
The information gathered will enable researchers to make predictions of future growth and report this to the industry on a weekly basis, while also supporting novel grassland research.
The project is a collaboration between HCC, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) together with the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) and researchers at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and Rothamsted Research.
Rhys Edwards of Hendre Ifan Goch farm near Bridgend said: “Grassland is the core of our farming system. It’s the cheapest form of feed so very important to farming success.
We got involved in Grasscheck GB to monitor our grazing management, to take advantage of new ideas and techniques that will ultimately improve our grassland, along with benchmarking with other farms around the country.
James Powell, from Dolygarn Farm near Llanbadarn Fynydd in Powys, said: “I got involved with this project to further understand about weather patterns, grass utilisation and soil health.
“Grassland management and soil health are vital as grass is the single most abundant and cost-effective crop species over the farm area.
“Its maximum utilisation will gain me higher daily liveweight gains and output of livestock – especially if I can extend the shoulders of my growing season which is limited in these uplands. Grassland management also helps to monitor my soil health to help reduce artificial fertiliser inputs.”
HCC’s industry development and relations manager John Richards said: “We are excited to have nine Welsh sheep and beef farmers on board, who have already received training on measuring grass yield and using an electronic plate meter. We hope the project will make a real difference to productivity.
“A recent study carried out by AFBI suggested highlights the potential importance of this work as it showed that improving pasture utilisation by one tonne per hectare is worth an additional profit of £204/ha/year to a beef farm.”
