Health Goes in at the Mouth
From a farmers perspective we can do no better than to quote from Newman Turner one of the great advocates of herbal leys. He said “the herbal ley is my fertiliser merchant, my food manufacturer and my vet all in one.” This description sums up the advantages of this type of ley. Due to a wide range of species the seed mixtures over the next two pages are very different to the rest.

What is a Herbal Ley?
A herbal ley contains a diverse range of grasses, herbs and clovers and produces a well balanced forage and not just large volumes of grass. Many of the species used are deep rooting and have the ability to unlock resources deeper in the soil profile. The herbal mixture does not demand high fertiliser inputs and should provide increased levels of minerals and vitamins to livestock. Also if herbal leys are grown for about four years they will substantially improve soil fertility and structure with their deep roots.

Why use a Herbal Ley?
Herbal leys are an excellent source of forage providing very good animal performance in terms of liveweight gain and milk production as well as providing a nutritionally balanced natural feed. Of equal importance is the ability of the herbal ley to simultaneously build and restore soil fertility.

Herbal v. Conventional Leys
Leys have long been regarded as the most economical and natural source of food for livestock production. The trend in recent decades for simplistic mixtures perhaps with just two or three grasses and often without clover is being challenged by the increasing use of more diverse mixtures. Herbal leys are deliberately complex and this increases the initial cost of the ley. However this is offset by improved animal performance as well as a reduced fertiliser and supplementary feed input.

The True Cost of Production
When all of the variable costs of intensively managed grassland are added up it becomes clear that chemical stimulus has a high price. For example, if the price of nitrogenous fertiliser is around £150/tonne and 200 kg of N is applied per hectare this will represent about one third of the cost of silage production. This in isolation, without regard to other artificially applied elements such as phosphate and potash should raise levels of concern amongst farmers who can at this time ill afford to be overspending.

The herbal ley is an attractive and alternative tool. It enables the livestock farmer to do away with the expense and often unnecessary items of his budget by changing his farming system. Making use of the free processes of nature such as nitrogen fixation and the production of healthy forage by growing species rich leys. After all, before the intensification of agriculture, herbal leys were a popular and successful part of UK agriculture.

Whilst this catalogue is concerned mainly with grassland management in its many forms we feel strongly that it is time to reconsider the role of a more natural and economic method of production for a struggling British agriculture.

A Remedy for Modern Farming
In addition to the low cost of production associated with herbal leys there are two further benefits.

Animal performance in terms of overall health and liveweight gain is superior to grass only leys. Scientifically speaking, this is due to the high protein content of the legumes and the significantly higher concentration of vitamins and minerals contained within the herbs. This is confirmed by many of your comments on this type of ley. But this is only half the story.

The benefit of these leys to the soil is often considered secondary to the provision of food. Improvement of the soil from these leys is often underestimated. The deep rooting, nitrogen fixing and mineral rich ley has the ability to restore the most impoverished soils. The massive and complex root structure of a herbal ley naturally unlocks the many (essential plant growth elements) in the soil making these available through forage to the grazing animal and are recycled through manure for the benefit of future cropping. They also add large amounts of organic matter which is essential for a healthy and productive soil.