An event organised by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) will look at regenerating soils while maximising grazing days.
The event will take place from 10:30a.m – 2:30p.m on Tuesday, September 17, at Lydney Park Farms, Mile Bridge Dairy Unit, Stockwell Lane, Aylburton, Lydney, Gloucestershire.
The focus will be regenerative soil management practices and whether these can be combined with rotational grazing methods to increase forage and productivity.
AHDB said it will explore where Lydney Park is going next with its plans to improve its milk from forage and farm environmental sustainability.
Becky Wilson from Farm Carbon Toolkit will join the board to discuss:
- How to assess soils on farm;
- Methods to alleviate the damage caused by grazing;
- How to regenerate soils which work throughout the season, including extended dry and prolonged wet periods.
The meeting is set to cover Lydney Park Farm’s journey to improve soil health; management of compaction due to extended grazing periods; and how to regenerate soils on the grazing platform.
Lydney Park Farms
Lydney Park Farms worked with Brendan Horan from Teagasc to review the farm business and help them to formulate a plan to increase overall productivity.
As a part of Horan’s report, he included a section around soil health and management to help Lydney Park increase dry matter yield.
Regenerative soil practices have been recommended alongside a reseeding policy to enable the farm to return to consistently growing 16t/DM/ha as it has done previously.
Lydney Park Farms is a 640ha farm located on the Lydney Park estate. At 2m above sea level, flood barriers have been installed to protect the grazing platform due to the proximity of the River Severn.
This 10-week spring-calving herd of 850 Jersey X cows averages 4,750L/cow/year at 5.30% butterfat and 3.93% protein.
The heifers are reared on another farm, breeding 200 replacements a year, with the rest going into beef.
