Grass & Lucerne
Grass
Bright Maize Latest GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT brochure is out.
Bright Maize’s objective is to provide Mixtures that are up-to-date and relevant to the trends and demands of UK agriculture. To do this we partner with some of the finest grass seed producers in the country in order to offer competitive and viable mixtures that will help maximise farm returns. In conjunction with our wide range of maize varieties, Bright Maize has all your forage needs covered.
Charlie Dolphin
Business Manager
Mobile: 07790 404 786
Email: charlie@brightmaize.com
Mike Sims
Grass Specialist
Mobile: 07946 168 647
Email: mike@brightmaize.com
Grass Mixtures – Short Term
Features
- One to two years production
- Large aggressive seed
- Specifically designed for late sowing
- Cutting mix
- Ideal for sowing after maize
Features
- Two to three years production
- Improved protein content of silage
- High quality silage
- Improved animal intakes
- High yielding grass species
- Nitrogen fixing
- Contains AberNiche a ryegrass-fescue cross producing a plant with high yield in wet or drought prone soils
Protein Hybrid 2×2
Features
- Two to three years full production
- Four+ cuts
- Back-end grazing
- Ideal for sowing after maize
- Good for Haylage or Hay production
Product bonus – add Red Clover and reduce the amount of nitrogen fertiliser required
Grass Mixtures – Medium Term
Centurion
Features
- Three to four years production.
- Very high yielding grasses
- High sugar content
- All Tet.* mix
- Large aggressive seeds
- Up to four cuts
Product bonus – add Red Clover and reduce the amount of nitrogen fertiliser required
Plentiful Medium Term With Clover**
Features
- Three to five+ Years Full production
- High Sugar Grasses (HSG)
- Can be used for cutting and grazing
- Contains AberDairy a blend of medium and large leaved clovers, well suited to all livestock systems
- Intermediate and late heading Perennials
- TET.* Hybrid ryegrass giving yields similar to Italians with the persistency potential of perennial
** An original Bright Maize mixture
Castle Cut and Graze Medium Term Ley With Clover
Features
- Includes clover, giving increased animal intakes
- Economically priced
- Can be used for cutting and grazing
- High Sugar Grasses (HSG)
- Intermediate heading Perennials, giving a dense bottom helping to preventing poaching
- Three to five+ years full production
Castle Cut and Graze Medium Term Ley No Clover
Features
- Tetraploid Hybrid ryegrass giving yields similar to Italians with the persistency potential of perennials.
- Economically priced
- Can be used for cutting and grazing
- High Sugar Grasses (HSG)
- Intermediate heading Perennials giving a dense bottom helping to preventing poaching
- Three to five+ years full production
Grass Mixtures – Long Term
Vigilant
Features
- Six to eight years production
- Silage, Grazing or Hay
- Diploid grasses giving good ground cover
- D-Value above average
- Exceptional late Autumn Graze yield
- Persistent conservation yields
This can be made into a Herbal ley by adding our Bright Maize formulated herbal pack
Soldier Field
Features
- Six to eight years production
- Grazing or Hay
- Persistent grasses, with dense bottom
- Productive in a wide range of soil types
- Contains traditional grasses used in hay production
- Contains Timothy a very persistent hardy grass
Product bonus – this mixture is also suitable for Horses
This can be made into a Herbal ley by adding our Bright Maize formulated herbal pack
Soldier Field With Clover
Features
- Six to eight years production
- Grazing or Hay
- Persistent grasses, with dense bottom
- High D-Value
- Contains traditional grasses used in hay production
- Good spring and late summer grazing yield
Bountiful Long Term Ley No Clover**
Features
- High D-Values
- High Sugar Grasses (HSG)
- Contains Timothy, once established is very persistent and can be grown on heavy ground
- Seven to ten+ year production
- Exceptional Ground Cover
- Extended Grazing Period
** An original Bright Maize mixture
Bountiful Long Term Ley With Clover**
Features
- Bright Maize’s Top Selling Mix
- High D-Values
- High Sugar Grasses (HSG)
- Contains Timothy, once established is very persistent and can be grown on heavy ground
- Seven to ten+ year production
- Contains AberPasture a blend of small and medium leaved white clovers, giving improved animal intakes and reduces the need for expensive fertilisers
** An original Bright Maize mixture
Herbal Pack
Packed in 5kgs bags
Features
- Suitable for all grazing stock
- Increased performance from a biodiverse sward
- Improved soil health and structure
- Drought tolerant
- Lower nitrogen losses
- Deep rooting plants lift minerals and vitamins from within the soil
- High Protein
Product Bonus – Chicory and Birdsfoot Trefoil both have anthelmintic properties
Herbal Pack Plus Chicory and Plantain
Packed in 5kgs bags
Low Input Permanent Pasture Ley
Features
- Low Input Ley, no or little nitrogen needed
- Permanent Pasture
- Excellent drought tolerance
- Deep rooting
- Lifter of minerals
- Nitrogen fixing
Product Bonus – Chicory and Birdsfoot Trefoil both have anthelmintic properties
* Dip. = Diploid, Tet. = Tetraploid, Inter. = Intermediate
Bright Maize is also able to offer the following straights:
Red Clover – suggested over-sowing rate 2-4kgs/acre (packed in 5kg bags)
White Clover – suggested over-sowing rate 1-2kgs/acre (packed in 5kg bags)
These can be used to over-seed an area to rejuvenate a ley or be added to any of the Bright Maize mixtures. If weeds are a problem, then they can be sown after a new ley has been established and the weed burden has been managed.
Both Red and White clover:
- fix nitrogen and can allow the reduction of nitrogen fertiliser on a grass sward
- Improve animal intakes
- Are a good source of home-grown protein
- Improve the soil health
The Challenge for Grass
by Mike Sims, Bright Maize Grass Specialist
Considering it takes 15-20 years to breed a grass variety, a crystal ball would be very handy. But in its absence, the direction of travel is clear: apart from producing varieties with ever improving yields and digestibility; breeders are having to factor drought tolerance, disease, and pest resistance into the equation as our climate changes.
Nitrogen fixation and biodiversity is now a major consideration for grass swards, and accordingly clover inclusion, typically red and white clover, has increased significantly over the last five years. This is also pertinent to reducing synthetic fertiliser costs, which have spiralled this year. Such mixtures can also contain ‘lifters’; i.e.; species that have deep or extensive roots that lift trace elements and are more drought tolerant. It is easy to see, therefore, why farmers are planting a greater number of biodiverse mixtures (and in the process attracting a more diverse population of insects).
More farmers are overcoming the downside of clover – i.e., that it restricts the range of herbicides that can be used – by first planting a non-clover mixture, allowing the weeds to develop, and then spraying them off before stitching clover into the established ley.
Grass will have an important role to play in the PR battle that undoubtedly lies ahead for our livestock farmers. With consumers receiving a constant stream of information saying farming is having an adverse effect on our environment, future grass varieties will be part of the fightback. As mentioned, deeper rooted pastures with strong drought resistance will be part of the armoury in combating climate change. Grass is a staple of UK agriculture – a situation unlikely to change given recent food supply chain problems.
In meeting the demands ahead, the track record of this country’s farmers is second-to-none – evidenced by our food being recognised as among the best in the world, produced to the highest environmental and welfare standards.
Lucerne
Lucerne is one of the oldest forage crops on the planet, with usage dating back over 4,000 years. In fact, Roman armies carried Lucerne with them to feed their horses wherever they settled.
Why grow Lucerne?
It produces high quality proteins, 18-20%, with good energy content, whilst being a more than suitable match for maize. With the current prices of both fertiliser and raw materials being at an all time high, Lucerne can be a profitable and sensible way of feeding your stock.
Inoculants
As a legume, the seed requires inoculants to aid germination. It is important to mix the inoculants just before planting and then it must be used within 3 days of planting as the inoculant is live.
Our new variety, Nutrix Max is already dressed in an inoculant.
Establishment
It is vital to get the correct plant population the first time around as patching up an established crop doesn’t usually work. When sown in the spring, it is important for the crop to flower in the first year of sowing. Some people plant a light sowing of Spring Barley with the crop, so the first cut will be a mix.
Fertiliser for Establishment
In general, Lucerne does not require Nitrogen during establishment or thereafter, this is because it’s a legume and is able to fix nitrogen into the soil for its own use. It will also leave residual nitrogen for use by subsequent crops. However, if the Lucerne is following a particularly hungry rotation (e.g., cereals) a small quantity can be beneficial.
If slurry is applied before drilling this usually provides sufficient nitrogen in organic form but note that excess nitrogen application will inhibit root nodulation and reduce the Lucerne’s ability to fix nitrogen into the soil.