There are massive gains to be had from improving grazing management, most notably higher liveweight gain and improved cow performance. Many farmers often look to reseeding a field as the solution to low levels of grass growth, or poor-quality grass.

While a new sward will make a difference in its first year, reseeding will not be a good investment if underlying issues such as soil pH, soil fertility, soil compaction and grazing management are not addressed beforehand. Reseeding should be viewed as the last step to address poor levels of grass performance.

First up is a soil test. Is grass growth affected because of a lack of lime or soil nutrients such as potassium (K) or phosphorous (P)? Further to this, is a lack of sulphur being applied to grass swards?

The next step is to look at soil structure. Where soils are compacted, plant roots are mostly concentrated within the top few inches of the ground and cannot access nutrients. Compacted soils also hold water and lack oxygen, stifling grass growth.

Test holes

Digging several test holes across a field will indicate compaction levels and whether they can be relieved by sub-soiling or if ploughing is required. Drainage should also to be considered.

Grazing management should also be reviewed. Are swards being regularly fertilised, properly grazed and rested to allow grass to regrow.

Set stocking will put greater pressure on swards as cattle will actively seek to graze on fresh grass that is trying to regrow. Rotational paddocks will give the sward time to recover between grazings, allowing covers to build.

If grass performance is still poor after taking these steps, then it is time to reseed the sward. However, for a reseed to last, it must be properly fertilised throughout the year and well grazed.

Simply reverting to under-grazing, compacting soils or not applying adequate soil nutrients will cause a new sward to fail within a couple of years.

Farmer focus: Gary Agnew, Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh

Draining grazing land for reseeding

On Saturday, we started to drain 9ac of grazing land with the plan to reseed it afterwards. The grass is old pasture and unproductive at the moment, so it really needs to be freshened up. Drainage is needed even though land is hilly.

When we started digging drains, we found some of the older drains already in the field. I managed to get some drains running again by flushing them out with water and cleaning outlets.

New drains are being placed every 8m across the field with piping being sunk to around 3ft in depth.

Drainage pipe is either 4in or 2in in diameter. Once plastic piping has been inserted into the new drainage channel, I am backfilling with around 18in of stones.

Overall, I have 300m of 4in piping and 500m of 2in piping with 150t of draining stones.

I don’t know what the full costs of the project will be just yet, but I feel that it will be a good investment if it brings the ground into full production.

I can already see water moving through the new pipes, which is reassuring as it shows the drains are making a difference. I hired a track digger from my brother-in-law and we managed to finish digging drains by the middle of this week.

Reseeding

The next step is to get the 9ac reseeded in grass. First off, I am going to graze off whatever grass cover is still on the ground. After this, the old sward will be burned off using glyphosate.

Once the grass has died back, it will be ploughed and levelled out before cultivating. I normally sow grass seed using an older grass drill. It has always worked well for me in the past.

Grass seed will be a special mix that suits growing conditions in Fermanagh, mostly consisting of diploid grasses to suit land type on this farm. I have used this grass mix before and have always been pleased with how the sward performs.

Post grazing

Weather will play a big part in successfully reseeding ground. Hopefully, we get a dry spell to get land ploughed and sown out.

The earlier I get it reseeded, the more options I will have for managing the new grass later this summer.

Ideally, I would like to graze the reseed with light weanlings from the autumn herd to try to get it to tiller out.

Weanlings will be a better option than cows as they will cause less damage to the new sward. The reseeded sward will also provide clean grazing for weanlings, which will be a positive for cattle health due to low levels of parasites on this ground. But if land is too wet for cattle, I will probably opt to graze it with store lambs. They will have to be bought in as I do not carry any sheep on farm. Again, lambs will help to thicken the sward without causing any damage.

Breeding season coming to a close

I run 20 spring-calving cows and they have been with the bull since 1 April. The cows are beside my house and are being closely monitored for breeding activity.

There has been no signs of bulling activity lately, so the bull will be removed next weekend and cows scanned a few weeks later.

There are also 15 replacement heifers out with a new Angus stock bull I purchased this year, and, so far, 14 of them have been covered. Again, they are grazing beside home and are being closely monitored.

I have 15 autumn-calving cows due to start calving in September. They are still suckling their calves at the moment.

They were started on creep feed last Monday, so they will be ready for weaning shortly.

There was one cow that proved not in-calf at scanning earlier this spring. However, she has been running with the bull since then. I decided to sell her with her calf at foot last weekend though the mart.

The cow and calf team made £2,050 which I am pleased with as the calf was 300kg liveweight and cow still had a good supply of milk.

Silage

I cut 45 acres of silage on 24 May. It was cut dry and wilted for 24 hours before lifting. The same 45ac is now closed for second cut, having been fertilised with 1,500 gallons/acre of pig slurry and two bags of 27-4-4.