The importance of increasing output from grass is a key component of the BETTER farm programme. Maximising the proportion of quality grazed grass in the animal’s diet has increased liveweight output across the farms.

Improving utilisation, through a combination of early turnout, prolonging the grazing season, implementing a paddock system and rotational grazing has facilitated the increase in stocking rate and overall output.

Continual soil sampling and targeting slurry and compound fertilizers to low index soils has increased the performance of these paddocks. However, it is only capable of bringing swards so far, with growing more grass and sustaining a higher stocking rate presenting challenges.

To overcome this, all farms in the BETTER farm programme have undertaken a reseeding programme. A major part of the reseeding programme is being able to pinpoint paddocks that are not performing, through grass measuring, and target those for reseeding.

Farm details

Frank and Des Beirne farm 80ha, of which 36ha is rented, in Newtownforbes, Co Longford.

The farm carries 98 cows, split 60/40 between spring (January to end of March) and autumn (July to end of September) calving.

Cows are bred to two Charolais stock bulls – a terminal or maternal sire. A Limousin bull has also been purchased this year to breed with replacement heifers.

The most productive and fertile cows are selected to breed maternal herd replacements. This year, a number of five-star rated heifers were also purchased at a special breeding sale.

Heifers that are not selected for breeding are housed for the winter and sold the following spring as stores or beef. All bulls are kept at grass until a target liveweight of 520kg is achieved and then finished indoors.

Progress made

In 2013, the farm produced almost 10.1t grass DM/ha, despite the challenges of the weather.

While reseeding was not carried out for 12 years (ploughing and tilling to level lands that needed attention), grassland management was relatively good and has been boosted since joining the programme by improving utilisation through introducing more paddocks and implementing a reseeding programme.

Areas for reseeding are identified by walking the farm weekly and recording grass measurements (in centimetres).

Since joining the BETTER farm programme, output on the farm has increased from 506kg/ha in 2010 to 781kg/ha in 2013.

Without a doubt, new swards have been invaluable to carry the increased stocking rate. So far, approximately 15% to 20% of swards have been targeted annually to be reseeded, although this varied between years depending on the weather, finances and demand for grass.

Before reseeding, Frank and Des ask themselves a number of important questions to best plan their reseeding, as outlined below.

Why are we reseeding?

Originally, the main answer would have been old and less productive grass in the sward. However, like many farms, poor weather conditions in 2012 led to poaching of paddocks with decisions in 2013 taken to repair damaged swards.

Since then, paddocks are being selected based on their performance compared to surrounding paddocks.

If similar surrounding paddocks are producing 3t to 4t DM/ha more, this is questioned and if there are no other underlying factors (for example, soil fertility), these areas are targeted for reseeding.

What sort of sward is wanted?

The type of sward and grass variety selected depends on whether its primary use is for grazing or silage and if the sward is required for early or late grazing.

Initially, Des and Frank would have drawn from local experience of neighbouring dairy farmers with regard to choosing a reseeding method that worked well in the area.

Reseeding method

Paddocks identified were grazed in the first two rotations. The sward was sprayed with regrowth of 8cm to 10cm to achieve good spray-leaf contact and to promote maximum chemical uptake and rapid transfer from leaves to roots.

One week later, the paddock was grazed tight. It was then mowed tighter to ensure that all dead grass was removed. The seed was then sown with the aerator.

Depending on soil index, two to three bags of 10:10:20 was spread. Three bags of granulated lime were also spread to neutralise the soil.

Following this, paddocks were rolled to ensure good soil-to-seed contact.

Every field and farm situation is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all in terms of methods of reseeding. This method works on the Beirne farm as the land is level, free-draining and it is a matter of renewing the sward.

Ploughing is avoided as stones and roots of trees are an issue. Minimum cultivation also avoids ploughing down fertile soil and brings the paddock back into the system faster (can be grazed sooner as soil is not disturbed greatly).

Minimum cultivation is also being practiced by other programme farmers with good results.

Mixtures

The main objective in selecting grass seed varieties on the Beirne farm is to combine grasses of differing traits to obtain good overall dry matter (DM) production with a focus especially on selecting seed varieties with strong performance in spring/autumn periods.

The seed mixtures used (Table 1) have performed well, spread at 1.25bags/acre.

The second mixture heads out two to three days earlier than preferred and it is more difficult to graze tight.

This paddock needed to be topped this year, while mixture one was grazed as tight and did not need to be topped, despite both receiving the same management.

Interestingly, as grass measuring was carried out on both paddocks, they both produced the same amount of grass DM/ha last year.

Learning from experience

A seven acre paddock that was damaged in 2012 during poor weather conditions was reseeded this year.

The areas of poaching at the top and bottom of the paddock were disced and a power harrow was used to level this area.

The centre of the field was fine and minimum cultivation was carried out on the whole paddock afterwards. Last year this paddock only produced 2.5 t DM/Ha. To date this paddock has produced 8t DM/Ha. The benefit of reseeding is clearly evident in this paddock.

Post-reseeding management

Finally, a step often forgotten is the post-emergence herbicide, which should be applied from five to eight weeks post-establishment.

The correct chemical should be used to target the weeds starting to take hold.

Des and Frank said that following reseeding the job is not complete. Correct management (tight grazing, avoid poaching, sufficient nutrients) of the sward in the following years is critical to fully reap the benefits of reseeding.

Conclusion

Reseeding is expensive but it is definitely one of the most cost-effective on-farm investments. New ryegrass varieties have a higher sugar content, which leads to enhanced animal performance and improved ensilability in comparison to old swards. Perennial ryegrass swards are 25% more responsive to nitrogen compared with old permanent pasture. Additionally, they have faster regrowth and support higher stocking rates.