Grass Seed

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

Charlie Dolphin
Business Manager
Mobile: 07790 404 786
Email: charlie@brightmaize.com

Mike Sims - Bright Maize grass specialist

Mike Sims
Grass Specialist
Mobile: 07946 168 647
Email: mike@brightmaize.com

Grass Mixtures – Short Term

Maize to Maize

6.50kgs Hellen Westerwold Tet.*
3.25kg Star Italian Ryegrass Dip.*
3.25kgs Teanna Italian Ryegrass Tet.*
Seed rate 13.00kgs/acre

Features

  • One to two years production
  • Large aggressive seed
  • Specifically designed for late sowing
  • Cutting mix
  • Ideal for sowing after maize
Fox Hound

2.00kgs Hellen Westerwold Tet.*
1.75kgs Star Italian Ryegrass Dip.*
1.75kgs Teanna Italian Ryegrass Tet.*
1.50kgs AberEve Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
1.50kgs AberEcho Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
1.50kgs AberNiche Festulolium
3.00kgs Callisto Red Clover
Seed rate 13.00kgs/acre

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

7.50kg Barclamp Hybrid Ryegrass Dip.*
7.50kgs Kirial Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
Seed rate 15.00kgs/acre

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

2.00kgs AberEve Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
2.00kgs AberEcho Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
3.00kgs Aston Crusader Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
3.00kgs AberSpey Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Tet.*
4.00kgs Aston Energy Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Tet.*
Seed rate 14.00kgs/acre

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**

2.00kgs AberEve Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
2.00kgs Aston Crusader Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
2.00kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.25kgs AberMagic Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.00kgs AberZeus Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.00kgs AberBann Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
0.75kgs AberDairy White Clover Blend
Seed rate 14.00kgs/acre

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  

3.25kgs AberEve Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
3.00kgs Aston Crusader Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
1.25kgs AberZeus Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.00kgs AberGreen Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.75kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
0.75kgs AberHerald Medium White Clover.
Seed rate 14.00kgs/acre

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 

3.25kgs AberEve Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
3.00kgs Aston Crusader Hybrid Ryegrass Tet.*
2.00kgs AberZeus Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.00kgs AberGreen Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.75kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
Seed rate 14.00kgs/acre

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

3.50kgs AberMagic Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.50kgs AberSpey Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Tet.*
3.50kgs Delika Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
3.50kgs Calao Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
Seed rate 14.00kgs/acre

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

2.50kgs AberMagic Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.50kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.00kgs Aston Energy Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Tet.*
3.50kgs Calao Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
1.00kgs Comer Timothy
0.75kgs Laura Meadow Fescue
0.75kgs Maxima Strong Creeping Red Fescue
Seed rate 14.00kgs/acre

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

2.50kgs AberMagic Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.50kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.00kgs Aston Energy Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Tet.*
3.50kgs Calao Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
1.00kgs Comer Timothy
0.75kgs Laura Meadow Fescue
0.75kgs Maxima Strong Creeping Red Fescue
1.00kgs AberSwan Medium leaved White Clover
Seed rate 15.00kgs/acre

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**

2.75kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.00kgs AberBann Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
2.00kgs AberChoice Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
2.00kgs AberAvon Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
2.00kgs AberGain Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
1.75kgs Calao Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
1.00kgs Comer Timothy
Seed rate 13.50kgs/acre

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**

2.00kgs AberWolf Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.00kgs AberBann Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
2.00kgs AberChoice Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
2.00kgs AberAvon Perennial Ryegrass Late Dip.*
2.00kgs AberGain Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
1.75kgs Calao Perennial Ryegrass Late Tet.*
1.00kgs Comer Timothy
0.75kgs AberPasture White Clover Blend
Seed rate 13.50kgs/acre

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

0.18kgs Burnet Burnet
0.12kgs Aurora Alsike Clover
0.09kgs Sheeps Parsley Sheeps Parsley
0.06kgs Yarrow Yarrow
0.09kgs Leo Birdsfoot Trefoil
0.06kgs Virgo Black Medic

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

0.16kgs Puna II Perennial Chicory
0.24kgs Tonic Plantain
0.18kgs Burnet Burnet
0.12kgs Aurora Alsike Clover
0.09kgs Sheeps Parsley Sheeps Parsley
0.06kgs Yarrow Yarrow
0.09kgs Leo Birdsfoot Trefoil
0.06kgs Virgo Black Medic

Packed in 5kgs bags

Low Input Permanent Pasture Ley

3.00kgs Moira Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
3.00kgs Fintona Perennial Ryegrass Inter.* Dip.*
2.00kgs Bardoux Soft Leaved Tall Fescue
1.00kgs Comer Timothy
0.06kgs Prota White White Clover Blend
Seed rate 10kgs/acre

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.