The extra grass output more than covers the cost of reseeding pasture
With the high price of concentrates, and other rising costs, reseeding pastures with a low level of perennial ryegrass has become more important than ever.
Farmers cannot afford to be buying unnecessarily large amounts of concentrates to supplement poor grass and silage, or to be applying fertiliser on poor pastures. They give a poor response.
Some of the advantages of reseeding poor pastures include:
nPotential 35% increase in yields of grass and silage (depending on how bad the old pasture is and how well the reseeding is carried out).
* Better response to fertilisers (25% better response to N).
* 20% higher digestibility.
* Better seasonal growth.
* Better quality silage, easier to preserve; a 10 units DMD improvement.
* Big savings in concentrate requirements — 60c per animal per day.
* Better animal performance — an extra gallon of milk can be expected per cow per day, higher milk protein, (+0.2%) and live weight gain.
Excluding the costs of fertiliser and lime (which would be used on old pasture anyway), the extra cost associated with reseeding varies from €200 to €250 per acre.
The extra grass output should be up to 1.5 tonnes of dry matter (7.5 tonnes of grass) per acre, per year, worth at least €250 per tonne.
In addition reseeded pasture is much higher quality and grows earlier in the year.
Assuming that you maintain the reseeded pasture in a highly productive state for eight to 10 years, reseeding is the best investment a farmer can make.
If, on the other hand, you allow reseeds to revert back to poor weedy pastures in a few years, reseeding is not worthwhile.
The job should be done right, with proper follow-up, or not done at all.
In order to justify the cost of reseeding, many factors should be considered.
The botanical composition of the existing swards and the management of the grassland after reseeding should be the main influencing factors.
The demand for extra feed on your farm should also be considered.
