East Essex Smallholders Chitchat

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CONTENTS Rutland Grazing Group Our new Feeding Club Adam Quinney and rotational grazing Making forage work harder during pregnancy DO IT NOW Update on soil protection review The requirements for a soil protection review are changing.  Click to take a look at the update below HOW TO... Measure soil temperature Farmers from different parts of England have found digital temperature loggers helpful when making decisions about grass growth and fertilizer application on their farms. EBLEX has been helping producer’s measure soil temperature for the last two years by planting digital temperature data loggers at a depth of 10 cm to record soil temperatures. The data helped them make decisions about possible grass growth and fertiliser use. READ MORE… Assess the 2014 harvest The Better Returns Programme is encouraging farmers to make better conserved forage (grass silage, haylage and hay). And the best place to start when considering forage is to assess what happened in the previous year. From yield, to number of bales or trailers from fields to the quality of the forage, there is a lot of data to look at. READ MORE… BOOST YOUR FORAGE KNOWLEDGE Join a grazing group EBLEX has been working with a group of consultants and advisers to establish grazing groups for beef and sheep producers throughout England. The aim of the group is to help producers to improve their grassland management and develop their grazing strategies. This is done by allowing producers to challenge each other, learn from other’s experiences and identify best practice.    Producers pay £150 per year to contribute to the external facilitator’s costs, with EBLEX topping up. At the meeting there is a farm walk where the host discusses their system and the group is given opportunities to ask questions and provide “constructive criticism”. FIND OUT MORE... Welcome The EBLEX Grazing Club is for all beef and sheep producers who want to: - Improve grass yields and quality- Improve animal performance off grass- Cut production costs- Make more money Our newsletter is full of topical information, ideas and suggestions on how to achieve these objectives. As with any club, members can share and swap ideas on how they make the most of grass. And we’d love to hear what you think, so if you don’t fancy joining in with the Grazing Club conversations on twitter - #grazingclub - thenemail us here. Dr Liz GeneverEBLEX Livestock Scientist Winter visit with the Rutland Grazing Group The Rutland Grazing Group ventured into Northamptonshire for their December meeting. This grazing group met at Patrick Green’s farm near Northampton in to discuss the challenges he has farming on the urban fringe. Have a read and find a grazing group near you if you fancy it. NEW: Feeding Club EBLEX is launching a new e-newsletter – Feeding Club – to complement Grazing Club.  Aimed at beef producers, the bi-monthly e-newsletter will include farmer case studies and articles written by industry experts. They’ll cover feed production (excluding grass), rationing and economics.  The first newsletter will be sent out in a few weeks, so if you’d like to receive it then email us here. Adam Quinney is focussing on improving grass utilisation on his beef farm Last year Adam separated his young heifers into two groups, one was set stocked and the other was rotationally grazed. The heifers in the rotationally grazed group grew an extra 0.5kg per day over the grazing season compared to the group that were set stocked. Adam has therefore decided to invest in some permanent fencing, water troughs and temporary fencing to rotationally graze his herd.  READ MORE... Making forage work harder during pregnancy The focus for indoor lambing systems heading towards lambing should be to try and maximise intake of high quality forage and supplement with small quantity of high quality concentrates advises Kate Phillips, independent sheep consultant.  READ MORE... Update on soil protection review  The requirements for a soil protection review are changing. Meeting the revised Good Agricultural and Environment Conditions (GAECs) 4, 5 and 6 will replace the paper-based soil protection review. The requirements of revised GAECs 4, 5 and 6 must be met to qualify for full Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payment, or any payments under greening or agri-environmental schemes.  This means that all reasonable steps to protect soil by having minimum soil cover unless there is an agronomic justification not to or where establishing a cover would conflict with requirements under GAEC 5 are taken (GAEC 4). Land must also be managed to minimise soil erosion (GAEC 5) and appropriate practices must be used to maintain the levels of organic matter in soil (GAEC 6). Rural Payments Agency (RPA) inspectors will look for minimum soil cover, signs of soil erosion and organic matter loss when carrying out cross compliance inspections. For fields with historical issues or where certain practices, such as out-wintering, re-seeding or grazed brassica crops, are being carried out, it may be worth continuing with some record keeping. These records can be used to provide evidence of prevention and careful management during an inspection. For more information on soil protection, contact Farm Advisory Service (FAS) and the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) team. Take a look at the Soil protection standards 2015

© Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2015 EBLEX is a division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Email the BRP team | Unsubscribe EBLEX, AHDB Stoneleigh Park Kenilworth Warwickshire CV8 2TL