DLF – a leading international supplier of grass seed and crops – held its annual grass partner meeting in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, yesterday, Thursday, April 11.
During the meeting the company announced its decision to collaborate with Grasstec Group; who has become the official independent ‘analysis partner’ of the company’s grass partner programme in Ireland.
Now entering its third year, DLF’s ‘More Milk with DLF’ grass partner initiative brings together four dairy farmers on a journey to improve their grassland management and ultimately their overall farm performance.
Following the announcement, Paul Flanagan – general manger of DLF Ireland said: “Our primary focus at DLF is to breed and distribute varieties that perform on farm – not only through strong yields, but crucially have a strong graze out.
This programme is all about supporting our partner farmers in achieving the best combination of those objectives, while also enhancing our own breeding programme by trialling new grass varieties on their farms.
This will “add value to a grass variety” and enable them “to be confident in the recommended varieties”.
Last year, monocultures of the varieties Aspect, Xenon, Solus and Nifty were sown on the four participating farms in the programme.
The participating farmers include: David Thomas farming in Co. Offaly in partnership with his father Ivan; Eamonn Kent farming in Co. Waterford; Michael O’Sullivan based in Castleisland, Co. Kerry, who is milking with his wife Bernie; and David Hunter who is farming with his father just outside Newtownstewart in Co. Tyrone.
Grasstec’s grass measuring team will be involved in visiting the partner farms on a regular basis to measure and record grassland – with a particular emphasis on capturing data.
The aim of this is to progress DLF’s latest varieties and to determine their suitability on-farm.