Agrii supports official trials system for grass and clover varieties

Brendan Paul – Forage Business Manager

A free copy of the new Recommended Grass and Clover List is available from Agrii if you ask your agronomist. The trials scheme has been under financial pressure recently to maintain a wide geographic spread to provide you with solid and rigorous information. To ensure the scheme continues EBLEX, DairyCo and Hybu Cig Cymru are working with the breeders and NIAB TAG to fund and promote the trials and results.

The continued pressure on milk prices means that you need to manage all aspects of your farm business. The recent cycling success at the Olympics highlighted the philosophy of marginal gains. Finding 10 x 1% improvements is the same as 1 x 10% improvement. So lots of small improvements can add up to a big difference. The average yield improvement of grass varieties on the Recommended List is about 1% per year and with DV value improvements the energy yields are even higher. You can clearly cut your feed costs by managing grassland better.

Agrii produce most of our own grass seed taking basic seed from two breeders. This gives us a pick of the best varieties from a wide genetic base. Master Leys only include grass varieties that are on the Recommended List. Alternative Master Ley mixtures are tested prior to sale as varieties may not be compatible in the field even though they appear to be on paper.