With 280 Friesian Cows of his own
to manage, and a contracting business, Martin can quite rightly
claim to know more than a little about grassland management.
Martin is either sowing grass, mowing grass or injecting grass
with what the cows have made from eating grass!
The business's grass sowing service is a recent addition - Key
to it has been the purchase of a six metre Twose tined grass
harrow fitted with a Horstine Farmery pneumatic grass seeder
unit - the Multiseeder.
This system enables the sowing of grass seed accurately in a
wide range of conditions by mixing the seed in with the top few
millimetres of soil.
As an experiment on his own
farm - which if successful could be included in the services he
offers customers - Martin used the Horstine and Twose unit to
overseed about 10 acres of grassland - sowing seed into an
existing ley. The field was first grazed tightly and topped
before being raked and raked again to pull out all the dead
material. This enabled the ground to be opened up and allowed
the tines to make contact with the soil and cover the grass
seed.
Martin says he is "quietly confident we shall see some benefits,
if it works it will have been an economical exercise - I
estimate the costs are about a third that of ploughing and
cultivating - and that would be of interest to my customers!"
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