NSA South East Region Farm Walk

Clear skies and warm weather welcomed over 50 enthusiastic attendees to the NSA South East Region farm walk in West Berkshire.

We firstly saw a mixed species sward providing grazing for some of Steve Waters 600 Lleyn ewes at Rushall Farm. Followed by a tour of cover crops for outwintering. All feed is grown organically on farm, with lambs sold finished from his closed flock. Steve comments: ‘the forage-based livestock enterprise performs a key fertility building role for the production of cereals within the rotation.’

Next, we had a tour of some stubble turnips grown by Jeremy Plank, followed by a look at some recently purchased stock. Jeremy lambs 1,500 North Country Mule ewes outdoors during May, finishing all lambs through the autumn winter on forage crops.

After lunch, the farm manager of Yattenden Estates, Nick Down, took us out to view a mixed species sward, grazed in rotational blocks. Nick comments: ‘the mixed sward has performed better than expected throughout the dry summer on our mixed soil type and we are still seeing good growth rates now.’

We then took a trailer ride over to Haw Farm on the Yattenden Estate to view some cover crops and understand how they are used within the overall system. We also discussed how grazing Jeremy’s sheep on various cover crops on the Yattenden Estate has mutual benefits for both Jeremy and Nick.

Thanks goes to Steve Waters, Jeremy Plank and Nick Down for putting on an incredibly informative and interesting day.