For the past three years, the Grassright Group has been working with Worcestershire dairy farmer Dave Richards of Ridgend Farm to improve the productivity ofhis grassland, with a particular focus on silage leys. At an Open Day in September, farmers learnt how Dave is now enjoying the benefits of faster-growing, denser swards through changing his […]

Ross Leadbeater and Elaine Jewkes from GrowHow visited me earlier in the year to update my nutrient plans for the year. Ten more fields were sampled this time – so that’s all of the farm soil sampled in the three years I’ve been a Grassright farmer. Most of the fields this time were closer to […]

So there I was, driving back from a maize field and I just happened to glance over the hedge into my Newlands field where we’ve got the trial with half the field to my usual cheap red clover/ryegrass mixture and the other to a Limagrain branded mixture. Wow! What a difference!! I couldn’t believe it! […]

Where there’s a problem with soil compaction that goes below 10inches, then slitting or aerating is not going to resolve the problem. What’s needed is a sward-lifter. On our original field inspections, we’d identified some fields with compaction, and these have now been sward-lifted. This year, instead of sward-lifting the whole of each field, we […]

I have to admit, before working with the Grassright Group I’ve tended to view all grass seed mixtures as being the same. I just buy cheap seed. Why pay more? Well I’ve upset the Limagrain chaps! Apparently there IS a difference! They say buying cheap seed mixtures is often a false economy. So we are […]

It worked! The overseeding that we did late last year in my Little Obash field has worked a treat! So I’ll be getting more grass without having had to rip it all up and start a new ley. Fantastic!

I wasn’t happy with my silage yields last year – even my contractor passed a comment that I should have had more bulk. I think my cheap approach to fertiliser is possibly the root of the problem – I usually just buy straight nitrogen to top-up the slurry and manure. Elaine Jewkes and Ross Leadbeater […]

So here’s a picture of me and John Spence from Limagrain, and some of my cows. They have no idea they are on the brink of getting some better grazing and silage! John and Neil Robinson from Opico came to the farm and walked all the fields and assessed them and recorded their findings on […]