Herbal leys

Thanks - what ball park price is that coming in at per pack?
Roughly, I would expect the 20 day mix to be about €70 per pack and the 30 day mix to be about €82 per pack.

Despite the printed sowing rates, some people are planting a pack/acre which might give the broadleaf plants space and also reduce cost.
 
That second mix has me puzzled. It states that its for grazing every 30 days but the perennial ryegrass is 'persistent under frequent tight grazing'?
30 days of a rotation wouldn't be anywhere near persistent tight grazing and I doubt cows ability to graze it tight after 30 days at peak growth? Im thinking that both PRGs there will be gone out of the sward in a few short years as all youll be getting when you come into it is similar to grazing silage swards.
I'm not knocking the system, I just cant seem to reconcile the belief with the practice?
I'm thinking you would be reducing artificial n because of the high legume content. It mightn't be out of control as you put it
 
That second mix has me puzzled. It states that its for grazing every 30 days but the perennial ryegrass is 'persistent under frequent tight grazing'?
30 days of a rotation wouldn't be anywhere near persistent tight grazing and I doubt cows ability to graze it tight after 30 days at peak growth? Im thinking that both PRGs there will be gone out of the sward in a few short years as all youll be getting when you come into it is similar to grazing silage swards.
I'm not knocking the system, I just cant seem to reconcile the belief with the practice?

I can see the conundrum for sure and this is something we have discussed internally.

It is a compromise, if one is going for all out yield then straight PRG is the way.

Less N is generally applied to MS mixes and this should keep the PRG a little quieter. However, there is no doubt that a 30 day interval is going to cause quality compromises with the PRG.
I wouldn't think the PRG will die out of the sward, the quality will suffer somewhat.

The whole practice is new enough to most people and while trials are underway, they haven't been going that long.

My view is that at the end of the day, you would really want a reason to go away from the regular PRG/Clover sward.
 
Roughly, I would expect the 20 day mix to be about €70 per pack and the 30 day mix to be about €82 per pack.

Despite the printed sowing rates, some people are planting a pack/acre which might give the broadleaf plants space and also reduce cost.
Thanks, is that inclusive or exclusive of vat? I had noted the seeding rate anomaly :laugh:
 
I can see the conundrum for sure and this is something we have discussed internally.

It is a compromise, if one is going for all out yield then straight PRG is the way.

Less N is generally applied to MS mixes and this should keep the PRG a little quieter. However, there is no doubt that a 30 day interval is going to cause quality compromises with the PRG.
I wouldn't think the PRG will die out of the sward, the quality will suffer somewhat.

The whole practice is new enough to most people and while trials are underway, they haven't been going that long.

My view is that at the end of the day, you would really want a reason to go away from the regular PRG/Clover sward.
From speaking with a dairy farmer who has sown some of these leys, he was of the opinion that they needed to be grazed at a higher cover anyways so the residual is never going to be the same as a PRG sward? The quality of the PRG will certainly suffer somewhat I suspect but that isn't the end of the world when the PRG is not the be all and end all in the ley. The cows love it was his opinion and that must have been based on what was in the bulk tank.
 
This is the first results of making silage with them and they seem to need a good wilt or extra help with ensiling.
 
I am looking at different mixes at the moment, planning to try stitching some, full reseed for some depending on existing sward. @Soissons what was your reasoning for your choice?

Unlike my tillage enterprise, my sheep enterprise is very low input. Sheep are my only livestock and I find in hard to maintain a good palatable sward on my old grassland with low fertiliser use. I hope that the herbal ley will maintain palatability longer into the summer. I also hope it will be better than PRG alone for ‘mining’ trace elements and so help thrive. Any anthelmintic properties would also be a bonus and may help stop the land becoming ‘sheep tired’ and overcome some potential anthelmintic resistance. It’s also something new to me and I’ll always try something new !

I am looking at different mixes at the moment, planning to try stitching some, full reseed for some depending on existing sward. @Soissons what was your reasoning for your choice?
 
Last edited:
42307BBF-CD60-4785-A786-EE9669D4DC94.jpeg Just putting up a pic of the label on my herbal ley mix.
 
View attachment 86244 Here’s the list of ingredients.
View attachment 86229 Just putting up a pic of the label on my herbal ley mix.
It is gas that they list all the grasses and clovers in Latin on the label without any mention of the "herbal" plants.
I wonder is it a legal requirement to list all grasses and clovers?
The full list looks like a good mix, to my very untrained eye, just curious as to the labeling anomaly.
The Latin label only pruports to show approx 84% of the ingredients of the mix.
 
Very interesting, I would like to hear more about the management of the multispecies swards once they get the grazing trials up and going.
It seems to be a no brainer to me if we can work out how to manage them to best benefit. Don't know about you lads, but any day I take a docket from a man driving a fert delivery truck, I have to have a little chat with myself to steady the ship.
 
It seems to be a no brainer to me if we can work out how to manage them to best benefit. Don't know about you lads, but any day I take a docket from a man driving a fert delivery truck, I have to have a little chat with myself to steady the ship.
I have to say that expensive and all as fertiliser is, it is not as expensive as meal in my opinion. Feeding meal is not just expensive, but there is labour involved in doing so also, plus the opportunity cost of the reduced utilisation of the grass as cattle get too fond of the meal. So in the scheme of things, fertiliser is probably priced about right. But certainly anything that can reduce our dependency on fertiliser has to be a great option, and particularly if as noted by a dairy farming friend of mine, the cows like these alternative species.
 
Back
Top