Adding to existing pastures by overseeding sowing grasses or clovers into an existing sward can be an economical way to make a field more productive. It’s important to get the detail right however, because new seeds will have a high degree of competition from existing species, ...

Digging the Dirt is a Soil Association series of in-depth reports on farmers who are reaping the benefits of investing in their soil. (by Tim Bevan) Cotswold Seeds purchased the 107 acre Honeydale Farm back in 2013. Managing Director, Ian Wilkinson, wants to demonstrate how small family farms ...

Cotswold Seeds is involved in an EU funded project to reintroduce forage legume sainfoin and recently conducted a survey among British farmers to explore opinions and usage. Sainfoin, a perennial forage legume, was introduced into British agriculture in the early seventeenth century and was an ...

The period from late March through to April is the prime time for sowing fodder beet which can be a very useful livestock food source, offering one of the highest yield potentials of any other arable fodder crop. The root can contain up to 13.5 MJ/KG of metabolisable energy so it can be utilized to ...

Studies have shown that the inclusion of Lucerne silage in dairy cow diets can improve forage intake, and increase output of milk protein, with no change in milk fat. The benefits together with lower forage production costs when compared with grass silage should help to improve margin/litre of milk ...