TYNE
A short-term ley designed for high production with up to three cuts of silage or intensive grazing.
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Berwick-upon-Tweed
14°C
15:01
- 20 September 2023
Perennial weed problem? We've got a potential solution...
Back at the start of 2022, a customer of ours near Peebles in the Scottish Borders contacted their Farm Trader to say they were having some issues with perennial weeds in one of their fields.
As part of our Advisory Service, we put forward a recommendation to the farmer to sow a short-term grass seed ley without any clover and use a herbicide – supplied by our Agrochemicals department – to kill the perennial weeds. Given that herbicides kill clover, it was pointless including it in this short-term ley.
Over the past 18 months, the farmer has seen impressive results from the field.
In the establishment year in 2022, they were able to get two cuts of silage from the field, while they also used it for grazing over the winter.
This year, though, the performance of the ley has been even better, with great early bite and the farmer able to get three cuts of quality silage from the 15-acre field.
This is quite rare for the Peebles area, where it’s normal to have just the one silage cut during the year.
But the hard work these hectares are putting in – and the recommendations we’re providing to this grower – isn’t stopping there.
After the success of the short-term ley, the field will be grazed by 600 lambs over the winter before being killed off in spring.
Then, the farmer plans to sow a longer-term ley, but will do so using as little tillage as possible. The reason behind this is after containing the previous weed problem, a more intensive plough has the potential to disturb the weed bank within the soil, which would then bring the weeds back to the surface to germinate.
We're looking forward to keeping in touch with the grower over the coming months to hear more about the continued success of this field.
If you're interested in finding out more, contact your Farm Trader today or give us a call on 01289 330022.
Our grass seed mixtures
At our Berwick-upon-Tweed headquarters, we operate a grass seed blending plant with a range of mixtures available to order depending on the requirement of your rotation, from short-term leys right through to permanent pasture.
These mixtures are comprised using only first-choice varieties on the SAC and NIAB recommended lists and, with different varieties from breeders being approved each year, our expert team meet annually to carefully formulate each of the mixtures, which ensures our customers are getting the best possible products.
A member of our BASIS and FACTS qualified team will be more than happy to chat to you to discuss your requirements and, once the mixture has been manufactured, we can provide a swift delivery service through our fleet of vans.