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Tuesday, 22-May-2012 10:33:00 BST
Winner of All Wales Grassland Farming Competition 2007
This year's winner of the Grassland Farming Competition jointly run by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society and the Federation of Welsh Grassland Societies and sponsored by HSBC Bank is Mr Arthur Owen, Bodysgaw Isa, Llannefydd, Denbigh. Mr Owen is a member of Betws-yn-Rhos Grassland Society and will now go on to represent Wales in the British Grassland Societies UK competition.
Bodysgaw Isa is a business totalling 115 Hectares. It has a rainfall of 91cm (36 inches) and the soil is a loam over limestone. It carries 225 Holstein Friesians plus home reared followers. It is an all grass farm, but wholecrop wheat is purchased as a standing crop and the stocking density is 2.4 LU/ha including the wholecrop area.
The fertilizer policy is to maintain P and K indexes at 2+. Nitrogen at 300Kg/ha is applied plus slurry and 95% of the farm can be covered with an umbilical. Applications vary according to weather/growing conditions. No sheep are used on the farm and all the autumn and early winter sward grazing management is done by youngstock and dry cows. Cow tracks and water troughs are an essential feature in the grazing plan.
Mr Owen has focused on reducing costs and one that impressed the judges was the reduced dependence on silage. The farm has increased cow numbers from 120 to 225 without having to make anymore silage. This has been achieved by utilizing grass more efficiently and extending the grazing season. Currently the turnout date is early February and housing will not occur until maybe Christmas. This has reduced the winter housing period by 3 months on average compared to the previous system.
Milk yield is now 7,200 litres/cow, with 3,600 litres coming from forage. Butterfat and protein are 4.01% and 3.21% respectively and Margin over purchased feed stands at 14.08p/litre. As a member of a discussion group Mr Owen said that he had the confidence and support to make these changes and by measuring his grass yield he had been able to make greater use of grazed grass.
Lead judge, Mr Arthur Davies (IGER) was impressed with the sward quality of the permanent pastures as the reseeding policy at Bodysgaw Isa is one of long-term. The comment from Mr Owen was that "if leys are not down for ten years then there has been poor grassland management".
Mr Bryn Edmunds, judge (HSBC) commented that "the business had seriously examined it's costs and more reliance on grazed grass had made significant savings". All judges agreed that not only was there reduced silage costs, but also reduced bedding and manure management costs and these voted well for the environmental section of the competition especially when the slurry was used strategically.
Runner-up in competition was Mr John Morgan... Find out More
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