Author Archives: Grassright
Soil testing and nutrient planning advice from GrowHow

Ross Leadbeater and Elaine Jewkes from GrowHow visited me earlier in the year to update my nutrient plans for the year. Ten more fields were sampled this time – so that’s all of the farm soil sampled in the three years I’ve been a Grassright farmer. Most of the fields this time were closer to […]

Bowled over by seed mixture differences

So there I was, driving back from a maize field and I just happened to glance over the hedge into my Newlands field where we’ve got the trial with half the field to my usual cheap red clover/ryegrass mixture and the other to a Limagrain branded mixture. Wow! What a difference!! I couldn’t believe it! […]

Another trial: sward-lifting half of compacted fields

Where there’s a problem with soil compaction that goes below 10inches, then slitting or aerating is not going to resolve the problem. What’s needed is a sward-lifter. On our original field inspections, we’d identified some fields with compaction, and these have now been sward-lifted. This year, instead of sward-lifting the whole of each field, we […]

The cheap seed challenge!

I have to admit, before working with the Grassright Group I’ve tended to view all grass seed mixtures as being the same. I just buy cheap seed. Why pay more? Well I’ve upset the Limagrain chaps! Apparently there IS a difference! They say buying cheap seed mixtures is often a false economy. So we are […]

Overseeding: A success!

It worked! The overseeding that we did late last year in my Little Obash field has worked a treat! So I’ll be getting more grass without having had to rip it all up and start a new ley. Fantastic!

Soil testing with intent!

I wasn’t happy with my silage yields last year – even my contractor passed a comment that I should have had more bulk. I think my cheap approach to fertiliser is possibly the root of the problem – I usually just buy straight nitrogen to top-up the slurry and manure. Elaine Jewkes and Ross Leadbeater […]

Overseed? Well I can give it a try!

The field inspections carried out in September, have shown that some fields could do with more grass in them. But they are fairly weed-free, and I’m not ready to put new leys down in them just yet. So it’s been suggested that I overseed them. But I have to say, I’m a bit cynical about […]

Getting started on getting it right

So here’s a picture of me and John Spence from Limagrain, and some of my cows. They have no idea they are on the brink of getting some better grazing and silage! John and Neil Robinson from Opico came to the farm and walked all the fields and assessed them and recorded their findings on […]