Establishing a Grass Ley

In September’s vlog (filmed in August), Richard Smith - Farm Manager for Daylesford Organic - talks us through preparing a field to put it back in to grass. He explains that they grew a crop of winter oats following a red clover rye grass ley that was in for 3 years in the field. It worked really well, yielding about 2 ¾ tonnes to the acre, and was harvested about 10 days ago.

He describes the transition now from arable to grass ley including:

• The machinery (appropriate for heavy ground) they are using to prepare for seeding
• Ways of incorporating grass seed after a winter crop
• Best time to sow grass seed
• Their weed control approach when grass leys are incorporated into stubble