I like to try and get some reseeding done every year. Some years, my initial target is achieved and, other years, I end up falling short. I have loads of ground earmarked for reseeding over the next couple of years.

The problem is that it runs into a lot of money. Reseeding has become expensive and, in fairness, there isn’t a massive amount of surplus cash being made to invest. There are always fences that need repaired, houses that need maintained or updated, as well as machinery repairs and upgrades. It doesn’t leave a lot of scope for land improvements.

I used to get a contractor in to do all my reseeding work, but, sadly, he has retired from that line of business.

So, this year, we have tried to take on the reseeding ourselves. We have no experience other than watching others doing it.

We have tested several different options to try and work out what we are capable of doing and what is best for us.

We have sprayed off several fields to try and get rid of the weeds. However, the first field wasn’t ploughed as the last time it was turned over, we were sickened with stones.

We just gave it a couple of runs with the power-harrow and drilled the seed in.

We still managed to pull up a lot of stones, but not as many as we would have if we had ploughed it. To be honest, this hasn’t worked out very well.

The surface of the field is a mass of sods and looks dreadful. If we had ploughed, we would have buried all of that.

Now that the seed is starting to grow, the field doesn’t look quite as bad, and it may end up being successful. I’m not sure we will try that again.

First time

The next bit we ploughed, as there wasn’t as many stones. It was my son, William, who ploughed those fields.

This was the first time he had ploughed any land and it actually turned out to be very good. We then power-harrowed it and land-levelled it.

We really hadn’t much of a clue what we were doing, but we are actually quite proud of how it has turned out. It looks a lot better than the field that wasn’t ploughed.

Plots

We were asked about the potential to give over part of the last field to trial plots. We thought that this was too good an opportunity to miss. Normally plot trials take place in eastern parts of NI and on much drier ground than here in the west.

I’m not exactly sure of all the combinations, but it is basically three plots (grass, grass clover and multi-species) and, within that, there will be different fertiliser applications. Then, over the next couple of years, forage on each plot will be cut and weighed every three weeks during the growing season to what is grown.

We made the seed bed ready, with the seed then drilled into the different plots. It was certainly a bit of a procedure. These plots are now stuck in the middle of a field, and we will have to work around them. I know that a lot of my neighbours will think I am mad for letting this happen, and maybe they are right. But, honestly, I am excited about the whole exercise and looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Exhausted

One of the guys who came out to drill the seed said he was exhausted after the long drive to get here.

I had a little laugh to myself while thinking that, most of the time, it is us going in the opposite direction.

For many farmers in the western side of NI, we have to travel an hour or two to see what is happening in research trials. Now, we have our own trial on our doorstep.