Maximum grassland yield
with grassland care

With a smart technique, the following top goals of a grassland management can be easily achieved:

• High dry mass yields
• High energy and protein content
• Stable, drought-resistant grassland

In this way, dairy farms can significantly improve their feed quality and thus their milk.

Reseeding after ploughing

If the unwanted species of grasses and herbs make up over 50 % of the plant population, they should be ploughed up with a plough or rotary hoe. The plants may also need to be ploughed up if they have been significantly damaged by white grubs, as well as in the case of heavy weeing by root weeds. Attention should be paid here above all:

• Ploughing can only be done in areas where this is possible. Many surfaces cannot be ploughed because the soil conditions in the area make it impossible to do so.
• If possible, the working depth should be up to 25 cm, this means that the weeds are not only cut but also buried.

Restoration

Ideally, the restoration should be done with a thick tined weeder and with multiple passes over the ground. You should double- or triple-cross weed during the first weeding pass. High-quality grasses are deeper, better-rooted and withstand heavy loads better. Lower-quality grasses, particularly rough meadow-grass, can easily be removed from the plant population after cross-weeding several times because they are not as strongly rooted. Afterwards, reseeding of the high-quality grasses takes place, which is essential to permanently establish good grassland. In practice, reseeding with the grassland seeder become established now.

• If a rotary hoe or plough is not necessary, a thick tined weeder is the better option. With thick Ø 8 or Ø 10 mm tines, the ground can be ideally cleared of weeds to create good germination conditions for the seeds. This process is often referred to as grassland restoration.

Reasons for grassland care

• Eliminating damage caused during winter
  Simple levelling is not enough to ensure a high grassland yield. Alongside the levelling off of mole and rodent hills and tackling of sward or trampling damage (e.g. through grazing) it is also important to get rid of dead, shallow-rooted grasses. Snow mould, which occurs in grass that has been left to grow too long during warm, rainy winters, must be got raked out.

• Encourage sward tillering
  The weeding tines cut the grass lightly, which encourages tillering. The grass grows back more thickly and produces more biomass.
• Close gaps in the sward
  Gaps in the sward must be oversown with valuable forage grasses, otherwise weeds, such as rough meadow-grass, can spread. You can carry out a preventative annual overseeding to avoid this. The risk of the ground surface becoming covered with molehills or other open gaps is very high.
• Incorporation of farmyard manure
  Farmyard manure and liquid manure must be reduced to small pieces and incorporated into the sward. If the manure remains on the plants, it can burn them and cause them to rot.
• Reduction of fodder contamination
  If molehills are not levelled off and distributed across the sward or if fertilizer is not incorporated correctly, during mowing or harvesting the grass it will end up in the fodder, increasing its potash content and making it indigestible.

Rolling in grassland

Weeding and rollers should not be combined in grassland care. The most important reason for this is the difference in working speed:

The roller, which needs an ideal working speed of maximum 4-5 km/h, cannot work effectively at higher speeds. The tined weeder, on the other hand, needs a working speed of 8-10 km/h for a successful result. The roller is ideal for use in grassland restorations where there is a lot of loose soil, partly with ploughing up and reseeding. However, it does not bring more success in grassland care with tined weeder. With most activities it is actually counter-productive, e. g. when weeding out rough meadow-grass. The uprooted weeds should be removed from the stand instead of being pressed back on with a roller. In addition, during grassland care, the seed is “harrowed to the ground” as the baffle plates are centered off the tine section.

Practical test confirms the success of the restoration

Successful dairy farms increase their milk yield from basic forage. A practical test carried out by Einböck shows that the investment costs were amortized within a very short time through grassland care and regular reseeding. The costs of the overseeding variant can be covered quickly, sometimes in less than a year, thanks to the increased yields and resulting higher milk yields. In addition, the test shows that there is also a very large potential for protein yield in grassland, which also leads to yield increases.