2018-10-19 |
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College and Industry Partnership Aims at Forage Excellence
A partnership between a specialist land-based college and the farming industry has been launched with the aim of creating a northern centre of excellence for forage.
Staff and students at Askham Bryan College's Cumbria base at Newton Rigg have teamed up with industry experts resulting in field scale grass trials sown on 18 acres/ 7.24 hectares, with 8 different leys at the college's Sewborwens Farm.
left to right: Steven Gate of Agrovista; Mark Garrett, CF Fertilisers and Roger Bacon, Barenbrug both standing, and James Todd, Farms Manager Newton Rigg College discussing the forage trial plots at Sewborwens Farm.
Askham Bryan specialises in running agriculture and rurally-based courses and has been the venue for the Grassland North event for a number of years. Working with the College are teams from Agrovista, Barenbrug, Carrs Billington, CF Fertilisers and Pioneer.
James Todd, Farms Manager at Newton Rigg said:
”Cumbria is well known
as a good grass growing area with a dairy specialism so it makes sense
to capitalise on that, for the benefit not only of our students, but
for farmers in the region and beyond as they look to maximise yields
and improve land management.
“As a college we are keen to share best practice and working with our partners enables us to have the science to inform the practical delivery, making our forage work harder for us and also informing the wider industry.”
Students studying agriculture will be involved in the project getting real time experience including gathering and analysing data - grass quality, growth and yield will be measured – as part of their studies.
James added:
“We want those students to not only increase their knowledge,
but to take it back to their own farms or employers and question decisions
about why things are done the way they are and to start quantifying
the outcomes. That way, British farming continues to progress and
improve.”
Seed for the trials has been provided by Barenbrug, through Carrs
Billington. Mhairi
Dawson, Barenbrug's Research & Development
Manager said:
“When Carrs Billington approached us about getting involved
we were keen to participate. James’s plan to increase milk from forage
is a good goal which all forward-thinking farmers will be emulating
so it's very topical.
“The other big draw is to be able to have the opportunity to engage with existing farmers directly and indirectly via these plots to pass on our grass expertise but also, and equally importantly, to involve the many next generation farmers who pass through the College each year.” The trials will measure dry matter content, D value, ME, sugar content, NDF and yield.
Agrovista has been working with Newton Rigg for a number of years, and latterly to a greater extent, including involvement with the college's forage maize crop trials.
Agronomist Steven Gate said:
“Our primary aim is to help farmers get
the best from their established grass acres and that's relevant to every
farmer, whether they have livestock or not. The importance of these trials
is the recognition of grass as a farm managed crop. Good management leads
to higher yields with less bought in seed, which makes financial sense.
Working with the college enables us to help change outdated perceptions
in grassland and forage management.”
Support has also come from CF Fertilisers adding an important dimension to the trials. CF Regional Manager, Mark Garrett visited Newton Rigg to talk about how CF Fertilisers could become involved bringing a renewed focus to crop nutrition with their centre of grassland excellence. Mark explained that CF chose to partner with the college because of the students' passion and their desire to take best practice and new thinking back home to challenge the farm business's current crop nutrition approach.
Mark says:
“The emphasis
on farm profitability means farmers are having to re-think their existing
systems. Therefore, our ambition is to demonstrate, in practical field
conditions, how the right fertiliser choice links directly with top agronomic
and livestock performance.
“We will be involving our CF agronomy team, with their expertise and years of R&D to show how blue bags really do grow better crops, whether that’s as directly available Nitrogen in Ammonium Nitrate based fertilisers and its timing / application rate or Sulphur for added yield and quality.”
