We kicked off 2023 with a well attended PASTORAL webinar discussing grazing management with guest Emily Grant of Forrit . Emily is an independent consultant, specialising in grazing management and sustainable livestock systems, and a sheep farmer.
You can watch Emily’s presentation below.
Why monitoring and growth forecasting matters
Monitoring pastures throughout the year, combined with growth forecasting, can help foresee surplus or deficits in forage, giving more time to think about how to deal with it, especially when imbalances in supply and demand are unexpected. As Emily explained, how surplus and deficit are managed throughout the year determines how effectively pasture can be used and as grazed grass is the cheapest feed around it makes sense to make the most of it.
Having clear grazing goals
Emily explains how having clear grazing goals, for example maximising utilisation, or boosting soil health, would guide grazing systems used, within the constraints of the landscape. What works on improved lowland pasture may not work on rough upland paddocks. Thanks to our network of almost 70 farms, we are testing PASTORAL across systems and landscapes across the UK and work to capture user priorities through feedback and discussions at our on farm workshops.
PASTORAL’s pasture monitoring tool, developed in partnership with Innovative Farmers, University of Edinburgh and Innovate UK aims to support on-farm decision making by easing the burden of regular measuring and monitoring. Knowing your covers can guide when to start grazing to make the most of high quality spring pastures by grazing early, but Emily cautions against grazing before hitting target average farm covers.
Our Initial biomass maps
The PASTORAL team were excited to share initial biomass maps, showing kg dry matter per field.
We are having some really valuable conversations on how to develop the service going forward. We have refreshed our database for 2023 and the team is planning to spin up production to be delivering these regularly by late March, all being well.
If you’d like to know more about the project, sign-up to our newsletter or visit our website, follow our social channels or get in touch at [email protected].
PASTORAL closes to new participants in May 2023
PASTORAL will close to new participants in May so get in touch now if you’re interested in joining the project, receiving data for your own fields and shaping development of the biomass monitor tool.