GrassCheck Podcast

• GrassCheck 2026 - 2028 Farmer Recruitment

  AgriSearch recently opened recruitment for a new cohort of farmers for its refreshed GrassCheck Farm Network, a key initiative aimed at improving grassland management and performance across Northern Ireland. Providing farmers with current and predicted grass growth and quality information to assist farmers to improve their grassland management and performance.AgriSearch held a webinar for farmers interested in participating in the next phase of the GrassCheck programme. The webinar outlined what will be involved in participating in the new network, including enhanced technical support, expanded training opportunities, and improved data capture to provide a deeper understanding of the economic and environmental benefits of effective grassland management.  We have included an audio recording of the webinar in this podcast.  The video version can be viewed on the AgriSearch YouTube channel.

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• Making the most of a difficult year

  This week we are joined by David Patterson from AFBI to discuss the latest information from the GrassCheck plots and farms.  Robert Patterson from CAFRE, Geoffrey Malcolmson a dairy farmer from Newry and Declan Rafferty a Beef & Farmer from Pomeroy.We discuss current grass growth and quality and the growth forecast for the coming fortnight.  We also discuss how to make the most of late season silage and setting up your grazing platform for the coming autumn.Finally the farmers discuss how they have made the most of a challenging year for grass growth and utilisation and their plans for the next few weeks.

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• Springing Forward

  This week we are joined by David Patterson from AFBI to discuss the latest information from the GrassCheck plots and farms.  Robert Patterson from CAFRE, Andrew Dale a dairy farmer from Limavady and John & William Egerton who are Beef & Farmers from Rosslea, County Fermanagh.Topics discussed include managing the spring surge in growth, first cut silage, stitching in clover and reseeding.

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• Getting back on track after a very challenging spring

  This week we are joined by David Patterson from AFBI to discuss the latest information from the GrassCheck plots and farms.  Robert Patterson from CAFRE, Josh Morton a dairy farmer from County Armagh and Gregg O’Boyle a Sheep Farmer from County Antrim.

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• Red Clover Establishment

  We are bringing you the audio recording of a webinar we held recently on establishing red clover silage swards.The webinar was held as part of the ZeroNsile project which has established red clover swards on 12 farms across Northern Ireland and Lucerne on three farms in County Down.Dr David Patterson (Grassland Agronomist from AFBI) started by looking at the results of previous Red Clover research carried out by AFBI and Teagasc.  This highlighted the ability of red clover to grow high yields with no inputs of manufactured N fertilisers. He then discussed the key steps needed to successfully establish red clover silage swards.  This included seed bed preparation, timing of sowing, having a soil pH of at least 6.5 and the P & K requirements of a clover reseed.  He also discussed sowing rates for different sward types and variety selection.Two farmers from the ZeroNsile project (Stephen Maguire a Beef farmer from County Fermanagh and David Clarke, a dairy farmer from County Tyrone) discussed their experiences of establishing red clover silage swards on their farms as part of the ZeroNsile Project.  2023 was a particularly challenging year for reseeding due to the adverse weather conditions.  Nevertheless, both farms said they were planning to establish additional red clover swards in the future.

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