Forage focus for future success (May 25)

Unfavourable weather impacted forage production on many UK-based units

in 2024 – including Gloucestershire-based Lydney Park. So, what plans has

its team put in place to ensure grazing and silaging success in 2025?

TEXT EVA FEATHERSTON

In a bid to add greater resilience in the face of challenging weather and economic conditions, and to meet the demands of its milk buyer, one Gloucestershire-based dairy unit is working hard to implement changes to its overall herd management and forage production system,

Lydney Park Farms, which is part of the Lydney Park Estate, is run by a team managed by Gavin Green. The dairy herd comprises 850 Jersey-cross cows, plus 200 followers, averaging 4,750 litres of milk at 5.30% butterfat and 3.93% protein. This year, the 640-hectare unit has 250 heifers to make up for a shortage due to a long-standing bTB breakdown.

As part of the larger estate, it’s vital that the dairy business remains profitable in order to cover fixed costs. And to do this there have been significant changes – not least the switch from a fully-housed to a low-input grazing system. This better suited the land and labour availability, and increased profitability, according to Gavin.

It was a gradual change from milking 1,100 cows once a day, at its peak, to today’s 850-cow herd of Jersey crosses, which is calved in a 10-week spring block, from February 21 to April 20. Cows are now milked twice a day through a 32-point rotary parlour and milk is sold to First Milk.

System change

The unit also signed up to be an AHDB Strategic Dairy Farm in 2023. This is a network of dairy businesses that provides a platform for producer-to-producer learning, accelerating the uptake of knowledge and showcasing best practice. The programme represents the wide range of dairy herds and businesses across the UK and contains a mixture of different systems and focus areas, with each unit acting as a focal point for regional and national discussions. After a complete system change, forage is now the main focus at Lydney Park, and the team has been planning ahead to the 2025 grazing season.

After heavy rainfall in 2024, most producers are hoping for better weather this spring and summer to increase yields. The dairy business’ consultant Keith Davis, who specialises in forage, is helping Gavin to put plans in place this year, with a view to increasing dry matter yields during the next 12 months. They are aiming to produce an average of two tonnes of additional dry matter per hectare compared to 2024.

“The weather was against us in 2024, and we saw grazing dry matter yields averaging just shy of 13 tonnes per hectare,” says Keith. “That’s the lowest amount grown here since 2018, when there was a severe drought.”

Cubicle housing: capacity is limited at Lydney Park

Flexible approach

Poor weather meant that Lydney Park Farms, like many other grazing dairy units across the UK, had to be flexible and adapt. Cows are typically turned out when they calve, from mid-February, and are housed in mid-November.

“The amount of rainfall in March and April meant that we grazed the entire milking platform twice during the extremely wet conditions and ended up damaging the fields. This is a disaster for maintaining soil health and avoiding compaction,” adds Gavin.

After this, the team split the herd into three groups, rotating them between being housed and out grazing. Each group of 270 cows grazed for eight hours at a time, to help take some pressure off the fields. “Our housing capacity is limited here,” says Gavin. “If we had more space we would have opted to house the cows and then graze them all for just three hours each day to aid soil recovery.”

“As things were, we were quite pleased with the result of rotating housing and grazing,” adds Keith. “Adapting the system took the pressure off the grazing paddocks, a few of which were getting into a bit of a mess.” Following 2024’s wet period, the weather then turned exceptionally dry and offered up a completely different set of challenges on many units. “It was an extremely difficult year. The soil became compacted and, as a result, there was less space for the plant roots to grow. The roots were only able to get down to between 25mm and 50mm. This impacted the amount of grass dry matter yield we could produce per hectare,” he explains.

Cow tracks: good access to grazing is essential

Autumn grass

In the autumn, grass growth took off and the team started to feel more positive about the grazing-season potential. But they were still keen to put some plans in place so they could be better prepared to help support higher dry matter yields.

With this in mind, the team, and the farm’s Strategic Dairy Farm steering group, began to work closely with Teagasc’s Brendan Horan. He helped them to develop a robust set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and profit targets specific to Lydney Park, which were partially focused on optimising soil health and increasing dry matter yields.

“We discussed what happened in 2024, and its impact on the soil and grassland performance, and, with his guidance, set about improving soil structure, aerating and reseeding,” says Keith.

Action points included: reseeding underproductive swards, recommending that 15% of the milking platform be reseeded each year using perennial ryegrass and medium-leaf white clover; and reducing total nitrogen (N) surplus to 100kg per hectare, from 168kg per hectare (in 2023) across the unit, by adding clover to swards, reducing concentrate use and crude protein content. Brendan also recommended increasing slurry use on the unit’s silage-growing ground.

Reseeding plans

“We are planning to reseed 15% of the grazing platform in 2025, with perennial ryegrass and white clover,” says Gavin. “We managed to reseed approximately 10% of the grazing platform in the autumn, so we hope to see an improvement in growth this spring,” he adds.

Although the unit has previously sown clover across most of the milking herd’s grazing platform, growth has been a little ‘hit and miss’ and varied between paddocks. “We have struggled to establish clover in around 50% of the fields,” says Gavin. “We don’t know why it’s taken in some fields and not others, but we’re pleased with the result where it is growing. So, we will try to establish clover again in the fields where we didn’t previously have success,” adds Keith.

As well as reseeding, the team is working on aerating the soil to break up some of the existing compaction and help encourage better growth from existing swards.

Improving grass silage yields is another focus for 2025. “We make our silage from surplus grass and harvested 3,400 tonnes during the 2024 season, which is slightly less than we need to feed the herd through the winter,” says Gavin. “We avoided buying silage, but we did have to dip into the previous year’s surplus. Ideally, we need to make around 4,000 tonnes of silage to over-winter the herd, so we are aiming to achieve that this year by increasing the amount and quality of forage grown,” says Keith.

The goal for Lydney Park Farms is to produce 14 tonnes of dry matter per hectare for grazing, and then aim for 16 tonnes in a couple of years’ time once more of the unit has been reseeded.

During the next 12 months the business is also reviewing the 32-point rotary parlour and drafting facilities, to see where it can see the greatest return on investment and increase productivity. “We are looking forward to seeing what the next year will bring,” says Gavin. “Hopefully we will see the results of our current actions, which should be increased forage yields and profitability.”

Forage knowledge platform

AHDB’s Forage For Knowledge content has been designed to help producers make the most of their unit’s potential with the latest regional grass growth and quality data, as well as analyses, updates and resources, provided by contributors such as Lydney Park Farms. This platform helps producers stay up to date with the latest advice to make informed decisions, whether they’re about adding an extra paddock for silage and assessing its impact on demand, or ensuring that grass growth rates align with requirements.

Find out more at: ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/ forage-for-knowledge.