The first South West of England SUPER-G farm network co-innovation workshop took place on 6th March 2019 at Quicke’s Traditional Ltd., Newton St Cyres, in Devon. The workshop was well attended with a total of 23 farmers and advisors attending.
The main objectives of the meeting were to:
- Introduce the SUPER-G project
- Discuss the main local issues for permanent grassland (PG) management
- Discuss the potential to investigate the use of new PG management options or emerging technologies by experimentation and demonstration.
The main local challenges for PG described by delegates were related to:
- The length of tenancies: the lack of incentive to retain PG
- Understanding sward composition and when to reseed
- Managing nutrients and soil structure; controlling weeds
- Assessing options for grazing and cutting regimes
The main issues that delegates were interested in investigating were:
- Increasing resilience to extreme weather conditions
- Grazing management for biodiversity
- Cost/benefit analysis of management interventions
- The use of shelterbelts to improve animal performance
- Nutrient management
- Diverse swards
- Carbon storage – how much soil carbon PG can store and sequester
There was interest in carrying out experiments and demonstrations regarding:
- Sward renewal (including slit seeding) to understand the impact of new grassland plant species /varieties on productivity and the delivery of public goods
- Grazing management for productivity, biodiversity and other public goods
- Methods for incorporating habitat support for biodiversity into PG management
- Cost/benefit analysis of improving ‘untouched’ permanent pasture
- Demonstrate the costs and benefits of shelterbelts on PG
See below some photographs from this day.
