RESULTS from a grass overseeding trial, has led beef and sheep farmer and Nuffield Scholar, Robert Fleming, to review how he manages his entire farming enterprise.
Over the years, Mr Fleming, from South Milton, Glenluce, Newton Stewart, has spent many long days and months honing the genetics of his 50-cow Stairhaven pedigree Aberdeen-Angus herd, which runs alongside 190 commercial suckler cows, to deliver high-herd health status bulls to beef and dairy customers across the UK. 
Youngstock from the commercial herd are grazed and are sold as stores from 10 to 16 months of age.
But the overseeding of six, one hectare plots in a field not touched for 35 years, with six different seeds mixtures then followed by rotational grazing, has highlighted just how much additional grass could potentially be grown across the 240ha farm.
“To be honest, I never thought we would tinker with this ground and we have grazed youngstock here for years. But, correcting the pH to 6.2 with granulated calcium lime and introducing some of the latest varieties and species into the sward, has catapulted its performance,” said Mr Fleming.
“We have been measuring grass growth from February – aiming to grow 12.5 tonnes of dry matter per ha this year. By the start of July we had already produced 9.3 tonnes, which is twice as much grass as in the untreated areas. So we will beat the overall target easily by the end of the growing season.”
The trial is just one of several carried out at South Milton this year, run as part of an iFarm initiative, managed by local Agrii agronomist, Lorna Galloway. 
Her aim is to examine how to maximise home-produced forage, at a time when farmers need to find ways of making their businesses more efficient.
The soil of the trial fields is sandy and would never take a full reseed with a plough for fear of soil erosion. Separated slurry was injected at a rate of 3700 gallons/ha in February, 2015, and the trial area harrowed and grazed hard with sheep and youngstock at the end of April.
The plots were sown at a rate of 30kg/ha with either a Guttler Greenmaster drill on April 30; the cattle and sheep came back to graze for a week and then the field was shut up for six weeks.
The plots were drilled with Grassmax Dual Purpose, which contains three ryegrasses and is 10% white clover; Lofa festulolium – a resilient, high quality advanced hybrid ryegrass; and Grassmax Cut, which has Lofa with two ryegrasses in it along with red clover. 
“We had reasonable rainfall, so by the time of our first meeting on June 2, the grasses and clovers could be clearly seen coming through,” Mr Fleming commented.
“To start with last year we grazed for three days with cattle at 10 animals per hectare, and then left it for 21 days to regrow. We weigh regularly and were recording 1.26kg of growth per day for store calves. 
"But we couldn’t keep up with the grass and had to top it. It needed more animals or a more confined system of grazing.
“In previous years we had set stocked these fields with a large number of animals, with no on-off policy. This has opened our eyes to the potential of controlled grazing using paddocks.”
This spring, more separated slurry was applied before 50 young cattle, that were gaining 0.74kg/day, were put onto the trials site. 
Weighed again, two 21-day rounds later, their weight gain had increased to 1.57kg per day. While animal performance increased, the quality of the grass and clover growth had also improved.
“At the moment on the six hectare field, we are moving 66 animals every three days on an 18-day rotation,” added Mr Fleming. “After 60 days in one plot, they had produced 1094kg liveweight/ha – all for 30p/head a day. 
“This has gone beyond all my expectations and has led to a complete revision of how we graze our cattle. We are now sub-dividing the farm into paddocks using 10km of polywire electric fencing.
“The suckler herd will reduce to 180 cows and we aim to finish all the youngstock instead of selling them as stores. We may even buy in some cattle to finish on some of our separate land.
“Becoming the first forage iFarm has been a revelation to me and we have Lorna to thank for encouraging us to try this out. We have also saved on anthelmintic treatments – faecal egg counts show the cattle to be worm-free on these revived pastures.
“We are not favouring one seeds mixture over any other – they are all successful, peaking at different times of the year. We will sow different mixtures in strips across each field.
“We like to have white and red clovers and will apply dressings of 30kg of N per ha, little and often throughout the season. Any surplus forage will be made into silage bales to offer a consistent diet throughout the year.
“We are lucky that the Aberdeen-Angus is a good breed for rearing and feeding on grass, and I am now building the farming system to gain as much production from pasture. 
“In effect, I will be able to double my output without buying more land. Being part of the iFarm means I can share my findings with others, who can also benefit from rejuvenating their swards and paddock grazing.”