Description
The dairy farm of Billy, Mark and Liam Heffernan (Dunnamaggin, Co. Kilkenny Ireland ) was a monitor farm under the Glanbia (Co-op who processes milk) joint programme for 3 years from 2008 to 2010. Reseeding must be combined with managing, and where necessary increasing, soil fertility. Productive grassland farms must have perennial ryegrass dominated swards. Recent Moorepark research shows that old permanent pasture produces, on average, 3 t DM / ha per year less than perennial ryegrass dominated swards. Old permanent pasture is up to 25 % less responsive to available nutrients such as nitrogen than a perennial ryegrass dominated sward.
The key traits in grass seed in a grass- based production system are:
- High quality
- High seasonal production
- Good persistency score
Combining diploids and tetraploids in a mixture creates high quality swards on the farm.
The main outcomes of the meeting were:
- Reseed and graze monoculture swards to identify which varieties work best on the farm and to see the value of different monocultures
- The farmers are identifying top performing varieties
- Identification and assessment of different grass varieties
- Discussion groups are very beneficial for knowledge generation and exchange
- The objective is to produce more milk from grass by using top varieties of grass
Abstract also available in:
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