There is no doubt that one of our most sought after technical guides highlights the agronomic and financial value of pasture renovation programmes. This is because there are many livestock farmers who have leys which are basically sound but just need improving to generate more grass for grazing and/or conservation purposes.
It is a fact that even the best managed medium and long term leys will deteriorate over time and within 5 years it is not unusual to find the percentage of the original sown species to have been reduced by 50% or more. The ingress of weeds and poorly performing grasses (such as annual meadow-grass, rough stalked meadow-grass, creeping bent and Yorkshire fog) will lead to a loss of digestibility, a reduction in yield and an inefficient use of expensive fertilisers.
By assessing your pastures you might well be able to avoid the more expensive full re-seed and take advantage of a renovation programme. This option is also very convenient if you have fields which, for one reason or another, cannot be taken out of production to facilitate a complete re-seed.
To make a renovation programme a success there are various key guidelines to follow â and our updated Guide to Successful Pasture Renovation provides you with all the key agronomic pointers. We provide details on the most suitable mixtures to use as well as links to the availability of other technical brochures which will be equally valuable.
To obtain a copy of this informative publication you can e-mail us on: info@limagrain.co.uk and advise whether you would like a hard copy or an electronic file, in pdf format, which you can keep for reference of your computer. Please write âPasture Renovationâ in the subject box as this will help us to deal more efficiently with your request.
March 2013