Webinar to highlight on farm experiences of establishing multispecies swards

Multispecies swards offer a number of possible on-farm benefits (reduced fertilser requirement, improved soil structure, drought resilience etc) but uptake in Northern Ireland has been limited to date. A European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project led by AgriSearch has, however, been trialling their establishment over the last 12 months.

The EIP project group is comprised of six beef and sheep farmers from across the province alongside researchers from AFBI and Queen’s University and is jointly funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Department of Agriculture, Environmental and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Each farm took a slightly different approach to establishment and it is their personal experiences that this webinar will focus upon. Each of the six farmers involved in the EIP project (Dale Orr, Strangford; Sam Chesney, Kircubbin; Roger Bell, Kells; Paul Turley, Downpatrick; Crosby Cleland, Saintfield; Andrew Clarke/Wayne Acheson, Cookstown) will be presenting on the night covering topics such as what species they selected and why, what establishment method they used, what were the challenges they faced and what are their thoughts so far regarding performance and management of the sward.

Results from SUPER-G MSS research studies taking place on both commercial farms and at AFBI Hillsborough will also be presented within the webinar by Sarah Brown (AgriSearch) and Dr David Patterson (AFBI) respectively.

The webinar will also give plenty of opportunity for questions to be posed to each of the farmers directly.

Full details of the event and registration details are available on the AgriSearch website.