Seed specialist Germinal Ireland has teamed up with Teagasc to host a ‘reseeding demonstration’ on Wednesday, August 7.

The event will be hosted on the farm of Brian and Pat Hogan, in the Horse and Jockey in Co. Tipperary. The focus of this farm walk is to share knowledge on “maximising returns from reseeding”.

There will be five topics up for discussion on the day, which include: soil health and fertility; grass varieties; weed control; sustainable agriculture; and machinery.

The meeting will see an examination of soil structure and soil health in the field, to “better understand the key components of healthy soil and how to identify issues including compaction”.

This demonstration will be carried out by Mark Plunkett of Teagasc and Bill Reilly of Germinal.

Dr. Mary McEvoy, of Germinal, will then discuss the “most suitable options for reseeding grazing and silage ground and how to assess grass seed mixtures”.

She will also demonstrate the Pasture Profit Index (PPI), a tool for determining mixture selection and the most valuable traits for grazing and silage systems.

In the weed control portion of the event, options for controlling weeds in new and existing swards will be discussed. These include weed identification, timing of spraying and best practice in herbicide application.

Prof. Gary Lanigan, of Teagasc, and Jim Gibbons, of Germinal Ireland, will discuss with the attendees how to “maintain a sustainable grass-based production system into the future, that returns a profit to the farm but also reduces the environmental impact from farming”.

Finally, the machinery demonstration will present an opportunity to view different methods of reseeding, including discing, one-pass and direct seeding. The pros and cons of each of these methods will be discussed.

After a hard day’s work, the event will finish with a barbecue and an opportunity to visit the Germinal site in the Horse and Jockey to see the process involved in formulating a grass seed mixture.

Anyone interested in attending should call Aoife on: 0504-41100. For more information, click here.