New reseed is cut and grazed six times and still going strong

North Wales dairy farmer Huw Williams of Dinas Farm has benefitted from reseeding a 2.8ha (seven acre) field last September, by the side of the busy A487 south of Caernarfon – zero grazing it once, cutting it for silage four times and letting the cows graze between second and third cut of silage and for a final time two weeks ago (Wednesday 12 October).

“Grass growth has been phenomenal this year,” says Mr. Williams. “We had to zero graze it in April because the grass was so far ahead of any other field in early spring – but it was too wet to let the cows out. We took the first silage cut in the second week of May and then again, six weeks later.

Huw Williams in the field of Sabre the day before the cows were grazed for the last time.

“The cows did cross the road from the main farm and come to graze between the second and third cut of silage, and then again to finish the season a fortnight ago, as there was so much leafy grass available.”

The field was ploughed last September, the stones were collected and then the ground was power harrowed and the grass mixture Sabre was planted using an Einbock drill. The soil was then chain harrowed and rolled. The seed germinated within two weeks. Nine thousand litres of slurry was applied three times and 100kg/ha of fertiliser were applied after each cut.

“Sabre has the potential to produce up to 20t Dry Matter/ha of grass a year, and I think Huw’s field has pretty much achieved just that,” says Osian Rhys Jones of Oliver Seeds. “It is the mixture of high performing Italian ryegrasses, hybrid ryegrasses and Perseus festulolium, which gives the mixture resilience as well as high feed quality and yield. It is particularly quick to get away in the spring and this is exactly what happened in Huw’s field – hence the zero graze in April. The mix also has good all round disease resistance.”

Clean and green – the Sabre cutting and grazing mixture has outgrown any weeds

Mr. Williams milks 200 dairy cows on 98ha (240 acres) of owned and 49ha (120 acres) of rented ground. They calve all year round and the milk is sold to Glanbia Cheese on Anglesey for making into mozzarella.

“Milk production went up 200 litres a day when the cows were zero grazed,” commented Mr. Williams. “It is still a good colour and really clean, the weeds have not had the chance to establish. Silage has been of very high feed quality – up to 17% crude protein.

“This reseed will have paid for itself in two years time and we expect to keep it down for three or four years. The field next to it is pure Italian ryegrass and it has not yielded anywhere near as well as the Sabre.”