United Kingdom
May 29, 2017
In this update we bring you an overview of our work at Cropvale Farm - our research and development site in the Vale of Evesham. You can read up on some of the key forage grass trials currently being managed by Roger Hutchings, our Cropvale Site Manager. Roger works in close cooperation with our wider forage grass team, including Mhairi Dawson, our UK R&D Manager.
Cropvale is one of three trial sites that we operate in the UK; we also run trials in Loughgall in Northern Ireland and in Aberdeenshire. Part of a working mixed farm with beef, sheep and arable production, Cropvale has a long growing season of around 300 days. Although well sheltered, grass growth on site is limited by frost and cold weather in the winter, and drought in the summer.
At Cropvale our work is focused on the development of new varieties and mixtures for central and southern Britain; areas where a lack of summer rainfall and fungal diseases, particularly crown rust, can affect both the yield and quality of grass. On site we test all the varieties and species that arise from the Barenbrug and AFBI breeding programmes that are thought to be of benefit to UK agriculture. These include early, intermediate and late heading varieties of perennial ryegrasses, hybrid and Italian ryegrasses, cocksfoot, Timothy, tall fescue, vetches and red and white clovers. The site is also a disease trials site for the national and recommended lists.
Trials at Cropvale are sown twice a year, with the main sowing in the autumn. Sowing is followed by two years of cutting to simulate normal farm use. Subject to weather conditions, we try to ensure that cutting dates follow normal farm practice as closely as possible.
Currently we have over 2,000 plots at Cropvale, all at different stages of development. We also have some demonstration plots that customers can visit if they are looking for advice on growing a specific species.
Westerwold trial
Our westerwold trial has recently come to an end. Having established 18 varieties of annual species back in autumn 2014, we decided to keep the plots going over a second winter to continue our observations and give us two full growing seasons of data.
In the first year we cut the plots five times, obtaining a large range in yield, equivalent to over 20 t/ha or 8.5 t/acre fresh weight. Possibly more significant was the range in growth patterns and plant characteristics observed. Some plots retained a very high percentage of leaf while others produced a lot more seed head and structural breif. Throughout the season there were also variations in yield distribution, disease resistance and ground cover, which invariably led to the ingression of some broad-leaved weeds on some of the more open swards. At the end of the first year of the trial, we committed to producing the variety BARSPECTRA II – which can deliver an excellent yield of leafy grass with good agronomic characteristics.
In the second year of the trial, the westerwolds that persisted enough to warrant harvesting, yielded around 50% of what was achieved in year one. The variation from best to worst was over 32 tonnes (t) of fresh weight per hectare (ha) with the worst plots yielding around 4t of dry matter (DM) / ha over the year. As a comparison, in practical, on-farm terms, we would expect our perennial ryegrasses to yield more than this in a single cut.
When we compared the average yield of the westerwolds in their second year to the yield of a second-year Italian crop, we discovered that the westerwolds produced around half of the Italians. This clearly demonstrates that farmers who want to maximise yields in the second year of planting should always choose an Italian ryegrass, even over a very persistent westerwold. In terms of forage volume, the numbers are striking with a difference of between 6-8t DM/ha.
Anaerobic digestion trial
We are entering the final year of our anaerobic digestion (AD) trial at Cropvale. Back in autumn 2014 we established a number of plots of Italian ryegrasses, hybrid ryegrasses, tall fescues plus various mixtures of these species. With these plots, our aim was to assess the yield and agronomic characteristics of different grass species to determine which are best suited to use in the renewables sector. Over the last two growing seasons, the trial has yielded some interesting results. Year one results were as expected. The Italian ryegrass straights, and the mixtures containing the biggest ratio of Italians, performed best. The hybrid ryegrasses also performed favourably while the tall fescues did less well. Typically, tall fescues are much slower to establish than Italian and hybrid ryegrasses. They generally prefer soil temperatures of 8°C and over. This is several degrees warmer than Italian ryegrasses, which can tolerate temperatures as low as 3°C.
In the first year, the range across our AD trial was just over 10t DM/ha but in the second year this dropped significantly to just over 4tDM/ha. However, the most interesting observation came in year two, when we noticed that the top eight performing varieties were pure tall fescues – with the top performer achieving over 14t DM/ha.
From our work to date, we’ve concluded that farmers looking to grow grass for anaerobic digesters – and maximise yields over two years – should pick an Italian ryegrass- based mixture. Blends such as Barforage HIGH D can easily provide well over 15t DM/ha on average over two years. With the ability to grow in colder soil conditions, this gives multiple cut opportunities and numerous chances to spread digestate back onto the ground to count towards the nutrient budget. For anyone interested in making a longer-term investment in growing grass for the purposes of AD, we are reserving judgement until after our 2017 harvest. By this point we would hope to have more interesting results and a clearer idea of how the fescues fared in year three compared to the Italians.
While our AD trial is focused on identifying the best grass products for the renewables sector, it has also yielded some interesting insights into the variability of some of the tall fescue varieties we planted. This in turn is helping to inform decisions about some of our other products and concepts. As well as proving that fescues are higher yielding in the second year, our trials showed differences in the hardness of leaves and the disease resistance of the varieties. These findings will enable us to further develop mixtures such as Barforage BARMIX and a new concept we are exploring, which is more focused on cattle enterprises. Furthermore, we noticed a lot of damage to one of our ryegrass plots, which was caused by chafer grubs. Interestingly, the surrounding fescue plots were unscathed – potentially because the fescues have a more extensive root system.
Brassicas
This year we are, once again, establishing a number of different brassica plots that we can show to customers who visit Cropvale. This is the second year that we’ve sown areas dedicated to crops including Barabas stubble turnips, Barcoli forage rape and Keeper kale. This year we aren’t actively looking to monitor anything specific, but we’ll obviously be keeping a careful eye on the varieties we put in and will report back on any interesting observations.
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