The role and importance of multi-species swards (MSS)

Brendan Horan, Farm Systems researcher at Teagasc Moorepark, is on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss multi-species swards (MSS) and the reason he and his team are researching them in the multi-milk systems trials at Curtin’s Farm. Brendan starts by telling us the policy context for looking at MSS stemming from the Farm to Fork strategy that is looking for reductions in the amount of inputs going into farming systems, to minimise environmental impacts of farming, increase resource use efficiency and increase biodiversity. Following on from the policy piece and the requirement to reduce the nitrogen footprint of the farming system, the third piece of the jigsaw is climate change and how are we going to deal with potentially drier summers and wetter winters.  In that context, multi-species have the potential to reduce the nitrogen requirement as well as offering increased sward diversity that might have the potential to allow us to adapt to changing weather patterns. Brendan went on to say that on the multi-milk trial, multi-species swards are growing similar quantities of forage, showing increases in milk solids output during the mid-season, but very importantly, have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching by 5-10% compared to standard perennial ryegrass swards that are commonplace currently. Finally, Brendan encourages farmers to try some on their farms as farmers will need to learn how to farm these swards and the best way to do this is to try it.  Furthermore, assuming that good perennial ryegrass and clover varieties are used, these swards, while potentially not persisting as multi-species swards, will continue to persist as high quality grass clover swards in the medium to longer term on farms.    For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/ The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com