New Entrants to Farming: Turfs Up, An Introduction to Grassland Management (Inverness)

The Inverness New Entrants group met in Mid September at the local Dingwall Mart, having been encouraged to bring along samples of their own grass to be evaluated in an interactive workshop, the event was literally a case of turfs up. Guest speaker and grassland specialist Paddy Jack led the group through an afternoon consisting of presentations and an interactive workshop in which the attendees could get their hands dirty.

Grassland forms the foundations of many agricultural businesses, particularly livestock enterprises, providing the most cost effective way to feed livestock and at the same time is a prominent landscape feature and important for carbon capture. With all this in mind it is important that grass is well managed.

Paddy began proceedings with a presentation detailing the state of play in agriculture at present, including; trends in livestock numbers, the grass life cycle and the nutrition value of grass, the impacts of different grazing systems and inputs and grass maintenance.

“If you take nothing else away from today remember, if you want a heavy cow or a good yield, it all starts in the soil” Paddy Jack, stressing the importance of good soil health for good grass.

Following a discussion with some visual props i.e. grass seed and a variety of fertilisers the group, with turfs on the table went through each sample brought in, evaluating key features like; species present and sward density as well as lime and fertiliser requirements.