ADAS host herbal ley workshops at farms in Cornwall

On September 10 and 11, agricultural consultancy ADAS ran the events at Lower Northcott Farm in Launceston and Ennis Barton Farm in Fraddon. 

READ MORE: ADAS to host two free grassland events in Cornwall next week

The workshops focused on various benefits of multi-species herbal leys for soil health, livestock, the farm business, and the wider environment as well as how to overcome establishment and maintenance challenges. 

Tim Martyn and Martin Howard at Lower Northcott Farm. (Image: ADAS) Organiser of the workshops, Tim Martyn (national grassland advisor at ADAS), said: “With the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme now offering payments for maintaining a rotational or static herbal ley on grassland, there has never been a better time to explore the possibilities.

“The best place to start is to find out what will grow in your situation – not everything will grow everywhere. Think about your key objectives, whether that’s improving soil health, building climate resilience, or better quality forage, and choose your species accordingly.

“To ensure that species survive and don’t dominate each other, you need to consider what will work with your soil type. Graze rotationally to avoid overgrazing and minimise excessive machinery wheelings, especially during that first year as the ley establishes.

“Under Defra’s Future Farming Resilience Fund, farmers who claimed BPS are entitled to free independent technical and farm business advice. The fund will close early next year so I would urge eligible farmers who have questions about herbal leys or anything else to take advantage of the fund if they haven’t done so already.”

Tim Martyn presenting at Ennis Barton. (Image: ADAS)

The first workshop was hosted by Martin and Alison Howard, along with Emma Balsdon, who operate a minimal input beef system at Lower Northcott Farm, finishing their beef entirely on grazed and conserved herbage.

Martin has been using herbal leys for many years to help build his soil organic matter content and as a way to retain soil nutrients and improve animal nutrition.

“We noticed a real benefit when using deep rooting grass, clover and herb species, which can access nutrients and moisture lower in the soil profile," he said.

"Herbage tissue analysis is important to understand the mineral and quality benefits for livestock.

“We use a grazed brassica cover crop to lower the population of the grassland pest species before subsoiling, removing compaction without ploughing by sward lifting. To help with initial establishment, we’ve had good success with mycorrhizal fungi seed treatments to encourage rooting. We follow sowing up with a biostimulant application to help get it off the ground fast.”

Andrew and Claire Brewer hosted the second workshop at Ennis Barton, Fraddon. The 1,000 acre farm runs a grass-based dairy of 500 autumn-block jersey-cross cows and a beef finishing system. They have been incorporating herbal leys for both the soil and carbon benefits and has been closely monitoring the impacts on their dairy herd.

Herbal ley at Ennis Barton. (Image: ADAS)Andrew added: “On switching to herbal leys from a standard ryegrass and white clover mixture, we found no impact upon milk production and milk protein but we did notice that milk urea levels decreased. The milking cows were able to process dietary protein from the new herbal ley mix much more efficiently it appears.

“Recently we have begun to move away from having chicory in our cutting mixes. It was working fine the first year but in the second it quickly bolted, producing stems that cattle refused to eat when fed the silage.

"Despite this though, chicory is still a part of our grazing system. It’s deep rooting ability is really valuable for improving and maintaining good soil structure.”