Grassland management focus at Morayshire Monitor Farm

At the next Morayshire Monitor Farm meeting on 11 June, Nuffield Scholar, farmer Alex Brewster, will discuss his 2016 project which looked at getting the most out of grassland.

As well as running a 4000 hectare mixed farm in Perthshire, Alex also owns Powered Pasture, which sources and sells equipment to support rotational and paddock grazing. Alex started the business after being a host farm for a QMS grazing group where he discovered his passion for grass, and began paddock grazing.

Alex says: “Over the last few years we have invested in electric fences and waterways, and we’ve created rest periods for the land that allows the plants to drop roots and pull out nutrients and moisture and feed the soil biology.

“We have also played with diversity, both in terms of diversity of pasture and forage crops, and through that we’ve seen the soil biota become more alive and the micro and macro nutrients become more available. We are starting to complete the nutrient cycle.”

Alex will be joined by Louise Urquhart, another grazing enthusiast, who farms in Aberdeenshire. Louise will also touch on her business diversification into running pop up farm shops, and delivering farm produce straight to the customer.

The group will also hear from SAC Consulting vet Hannah Orr who will discuss fluke, focusing largely on how to ensure protection of the flock without increasing resistance to anthelmintics used.

The final part of the event will see the group move onto Innes Estate, where Morayshire monitor farmer Iain Green keeps his crossbred cows and commercial sheep flock.

Iain says: “We haven’t yet taken the community group out to visit Innes Estate and so we’re keen to show them what we are doing up there. We have also had a lot of discussion across the course of the programme on the ideal cow size so we want to have a look at my simmental shorthorn cross calves and debate whether the smaller cows have had smaller calves, and whether bigger cows are really better.”

Corskie Farm is one of nine monitor farms that have been established around Scotland in a joint initiative by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds. The aim of the programme, which is funded by Scottish Government, is to help improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Scottish farm businesses.

The Monitor Farm meeting will take place on Corskie Farm, Garmouth, IV32 7NN, on Tuesday 11 June from 1.30pm – 5pm. The event is free of charge but to assist with catering it would be appreciated if you can book a place by contacting Samantha Stewart by phone (01343 548 787) or email (samantha.stewart@sac.co.uk).

For more information about the monitor farm programme visit www.monitorfarms.co.uk.