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By approaching grass with the same care as any other arable crop and choosing suitable grass seed products for your farm, regular reseeding can significantly impact its quality, productivity, and utilization. Even a modest investment in grass can yield substantial improvements. A reseeding rate of just 10% is sufficient to prevent a decline in grass productivity, while aiming for 15% begins to deliver tangible benefits.Despite a grass ley appearing productive and robust after being in place for over five years, it won't reach its full potential. By this time, only 50% or less of the grass plants will belong to the originally sown species; the remainder will comprise indigenous species like Rough Stalked Meadow Grass, bent grasses, or Yorkshire Fog. These species yield significantly less than Perennial Ryegrass and offer inferior quality and lower digestibility. Reseeding Just a year post-reseeding, undesirable weed species might make up to 18% of a sward. By the fourth year, this figure could double to 38%, and by the eighth year, weed species may potentially dominate up to 50% of the sward. An eight-year-old sward typically produces around 5.5 tons of dry matter (DM) per hectare. In contrast, a new sward has the potential to yield 15 tons DM per hectare. This discrepancy signifies that the farm is forfeiting two-thirds of the potential yield, a significant margin with a profound impact on profitability. Presently, only about 2% of UK grassland undergoes overseeding. While overseeding is a short- to medium-term approach, it provides a swift solution and proves effective in enhancing productivity while minimizing investment costs. Done meticulously, overseeding has the potential to boost pasture productivity by 30 to 40% over a period of three to four years, contingent upon field quality. Crucially, using a mixture explicitly designed for this purpose during overseeding is essential. Existing productive grasses in the ley already possess established root systems and leaf canopies adept at capturing light for photosynthesis. Any new grass seed introduced must harmonize with these conditions, and overseeding mixtures are precisely tailored to meet these requirements. |
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Select Organic Grass Mix |