Hillmount Farm

What do people know about willow?

We've a fair bit growing around and about the place but none in the farmed areas which stock can access for browse. So I cut a bit the other week to try on the sheep and it was all gone within the hour. So assuming it was good for them (does anyone know what the nutrient profile of willow is?) and with silage gathered in I've started thinking how do we provide a bit more diversity in the winter ration when the opportunity for browsing the hedges, edges and forces to top up micronutrients disappears over winter. So was going to cut alot of the willow and dry it as tree hay and supplement the winter grazing and silage with it.

However will be relatively small amounts so just wondering whether this is at all worthwhile or a complete time waster. A better plan…

We are starting to see clover emerge all round the pastures where we've applied no nutrient this spring. At first just a few patches but now more and more all over the fields especially where the sheep have grazed quite tight. Great to see the seed bank in the soil stirring into life. And we're still growing grass with covers of over 3000kgDM/ha on these fields coming into third grazing rotation of the year. Rotation. Rotation. Rotation.

It's NFFN's nature friendly farming week so here are a few things we are doing on the farm to increase biodiversity.

1) Stopping cutting all the hedges every year. We are bringing ours into a 2-3 year cutting rotation which will hopefully increase their volume and provide a bigger and better habitat for birds and insects.

2) Fencing off hedges to keep stock out and allow hedges to grow and flower throughout the grazing season.

3) Installing water and hot wires around the farm to enable an adaptive rotational grazing system which will help us lengthen the periods in between grazings. This will allow us to manage grass more effectively and flexibly and enable decisions like leaving a paddock for a hay cut or even fallow for a year which will provide space for nature to express itself in our fields not just around the edges.

Spring grass growth is motoring.

We have decided to go cold turkey on nitrogen on 50 acres of grazing. Growth rates ranging between 40-80kgDM/ha over last two weeks, with covers of 1800-2500kgDM after first grazing by sheep in March/April.

This compares to growth rates of 60-120kgDM/ha on the high input silage ground (Slurry + CAN) with covers ranging from 2600-3800kgDM and no grazing since January.

So its great we still appear to be growing grass despite going cold turkey but I guess the question is how growth rates persist throughout the season. Be great to hear other peoples experiences in terms of grass response to pulling the plug on nitrogen.