Germany
April 23, 2018

Most pastures in Western Europe are mainly based on Lolium Perenne. This species got a good production and top feeding quality. The management of forage grasses is top sport. Everything must be on point: fertilization, moisture supply, disease pressure and soil life. In practice we see that the soil quality and the soil life are unfortunately under pressure. Bigger and heavier machines are used also under not optimal circumstances resulting in soil compaction and structural damages. Top performing cover crops are widely used to tackle above problems. For years, DSV is leading with its cover crop mixture programme TerraLife®. We know that the combination of the right plant species stimulate the soil life resulting in healthier plants.

After 3 years of intensive research and trials on species-rich mixtures at two different DSV locations, we saw a clear trend and positive effect of several mixtures on both soil and plant performance. Because these effects were shown over several years and locations, DSV had made the step to bring this concept and mixtures into the market in the Netherlands.

In the new Dutch DSV grass brochure two new mixtures are introduced. DSV COUNTRY MultiLife 14 and DSV COUNTRY MultiLife 16. The MultiLife 14 is a special mixture for cutting whereas the MultiLife 16 is also suitable for grazing. 

Cows need high quality forage for the milk production. Additionally, protein and structure are also important. These species-rich MultiLife mixtures are a supplement to the ration of the cows. The legumes increase the protein content and can reduce the amount of soya purchased and some grass species give more cell walls and good structure which can reduce the purchased of straw. So these species-rich grasslands are not for extensive use, but are really an additional benefit to the whole farm rotational plan. One plus one should be three in this case.

Website: http://www.dsv-saaten.de

Published: April 23, 2018