Sainfoin, reducing anthelmintic use & Agricology Open day
- Richard Smith revisits his sainfoin crop at the 80 acre field at Daylesford Organic farm, six weeks after sowing.
- The wet and warm spring means the crop is well established now standing at 6 inches in height.
- The sainfoin was oversown using a native grass seed so has been successful in supressing the weeds and achieved a ‘clean crop’.
- Another benefit to growing sainfoin is its anthelmintic properties, working as natural de-wormer in livestock.
- FECPAK is another tool used at Daylesford to reduce need of anthelmintic drugs.
- FECPAK is used to identify the parasites effecting livestock on farms and can be used to identify ‘sick areas’ on the farm.
- Richard can use this information plan grazing rotations accordingly. In his next blog Richard will talk more about the FECPAK tool. Stay tuned.
- Take a look at the Cotswold Seeds resource ‘Sainfoin: Surprising science behind a forgotten forage’ for more information on the crop and its anthelmintic properties.
- Agricology’s first Open Day will be held at Daylesford farm on the 28th June, bringing together our partners for a day of knowledge sharing.
- Richard takes the opportunity to show you a 5 year established sainfoin crop in flower. Sainfoin can be in ley for 8 years and Richard hopes to achieve 37.5 tonnes of fresh weight silage per hectare. This crop will be mown mid-flower.
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The information contained above reflects the views of the author/s and does not necessarily reflect that of Agricology and its partners.