The demise in the popularity of multispecies swards among Irish farmers has been rapid. I think the first time I wrote about these swards was in 2019 and over the following years almost every politician, farming publication and dairy conference was discussing multispecies in one form or another.

Not only that, but their adoption on Ireland’s livestock farms was being promoted by the government of the day through the use of attractive subsidies on the purchase of multispecies pasture seeds.

The first of these schemes started in 2022 and ran until last year. The incentive was a €50 reduction in the price of a 12kg bag of multispecies seed, which essentially meant that the cost was reduced by over 60%.

This is the first year since 2022 that there are no incentives for multispecies swards and it’s fair to say that interest among farmers has fallen off a cliff.

Some seed distributors are reporting sales for multispecies to be back over 60% compared to their peak in 2022 and 2023.

Farmers are turning their backs on multispecies not just because the Government are no longer supporting multispecies, but because many farmers are disappointed with their performance. The vast majority of farmers I know who sowed these swards over the last five years are no longer doing so.

For every one farmer I know who is happy with multispecies, there are probably 10 more that are dissatisfied, including some who were once strong advocates of multispecies.

So, exactly what is multispecies?

Multispecies are a combination of different plant species sown in the one sward. Typically, they contain two or three types of grasses, such as perennial ryegrass, timothy and cocksfoot. They also contain two or three types of herbs such as plantain and chicory along with red and white clover.

These species have different rooting depths, so are better able to withstand droughts. This also means that nutrients are being taken up from a different part of the soil profile so a multispecies swards can be more mineral rich than a single species sward. Deeper rooting varieties are an aid to drainage and aerate the soil, helping earthworms and other soil biology.

The general theory is that healthier soils will be more productive in the long term and will be better able to withstand challenges such as drought and floods.

Species like clover fix nitrogen, so less chemical nitrogen inputs should be required.

Species like plantain have been found to reduce nitrogen concentration in urine, thereby reducing nitrogen leaching.

Indeed it is for these environmental benefits that much of the interest in multi-species swards had come about.

However, research and on-farm experience has been disappointing. The main stumbling issues farmers report is that the herbs don’t last beyond one-and-a-half to two-years.

When they disappear, the space that they used to occupy is open to weeds and is also more prone to poaching, without adequate root structure.

Red clover is also not very persistent under a grazing scenario and it too tends to die out after a number of seasons. So essentially what farmers are then left with is a combination of weeds, grasses and white clover with most of the grasses being, what many would consider, to be weed grasses.

On the positive side, multispecies swards did allow farmers to reduce nitrogen usage on the fields with multispecies, due to the nitrogen fixing capabilities of the legumes. However, the argument could be made that the same reductions could be achieved on grass and clover swards, without the persistency problems of the herbs.

Other farmers report being disappointed with the pasture growth of the multispecies, even in the years immediately after establishment.

Typically, new reseeds would outperform the farm average in terms of pasture growth, whereas some farmers report that multispecies swards achieved the farm average yield but no more. This has the result of reducing the overall amount of pasture grown on the farm.

At the recent open day in early June, with researchers from Teagasc Johnstown Castle, the results of the experiments on multispecies swards in the dairy herd were on display. The project had two phases. Phase one ran from 2020 to 2022 with 2019 sown ryegrass and clover swards compared again multispecies swards. No over-sowing or reseeding took place between 2020 and 2022 to evaluate the persistency of the swards.

In terms of pasture production, the grass and clover swards fared better with 14.4t DM/ha grown compared to 13.8t DM/ha grown in the multispecies swards. Animal performance was better in the multispecies swards with an average of 500kg MS/cow produced per year compared to 485kg MS/cow produced in the grass and clover swards. Chemical nitrogen differed between the two systems with the grass clover swards on 178kg N/ha while the multispecies swards received just 66kg N/ha annually.

In 2023, 30% of the swards were reseeded and the second phase of the experiment began in 2024. In 2024, 12.6t DM/ha was grown and in 2025 11.8t DM/ha was grown in the grass and clover treatment giving an average yield of 12.2t DM/ha.

In contrast, the multispecies swards treatment grew 11.8t DM/ha in 2024 and 10.4t DM/ha in 2025 giving an average yield of 11.1t DM/ha over the two years which is 1.1t DM/ha or 9% lower yield.

The differences in nitrogen fertiliser rates carried through to the second phase, with the grass and clover treatments on 120kg N/ha while the multispecies swards on 60kg N/ha. In terms of animal performance, the cows on the grass and clover averaged 473kg MS/cow over the two years while the cows on the multispecies swards averaged 434kg MS/cow over the two years.

In March 2025, Teagasc published an external review of grass/clover and multispecies swards research projects, with a view to ensure that advisory messages to farmers were being “synthesised from across the full research programme, and to identify any research gaps and future strategic priorities”.

The report largely suggested that Teagasc should focus research and advisory messages on grass and white clover and was somewhat dismissive of multispecies swards. The summary is as follows: “The results to date in relation to multispecies swards show that performance is generally similar to perennial ryegrass-white clover swards in terms of herbage production and animal performance.

“However, results of more recent studies have shown that lack of persistency is a major issue with multispecies swards, especially with chicory, red clover and plantain largely disappearing within two to three years of establishment.”

When we look back over the last five or six years and reflect on the journey the sector has been on with multispecies, I think the Department of Agriculture doesn’t come out of it looking very well. By incentivising farmers to adopt effectively unproven technologies, it inadvertently cost farmers a lot of money because they now have very poor-looking swards of multispecies; whereas if grass and clover had been incentivised, the swards would be a lot more productive today.

I fully accept that the Department acted in good faith and it was great to have incentives like this in place, but they should be for proven technologie only.

Personally, I think multispecies still have a role to play in some farms with specific challenges such as exposure to drought. Furthermore, ongoing research on plantain continues to highlight its benefits in terms of reducing nitrogen leaching and work on this should continue.

Sadly, the failure of multispecies to live up to its promises is another failure of the Green Party policy for agriculture.