Show looks at being a cut above rest

IT HAS been called both the country's biggest crop and least appreciated, but today grassland will be the focus for the thousands of farmers expected at the Scotgrass event in Dumfries.

The key message will be that poor-quality forage costs just as much to make as top-quality fodder. Dr Dave Roberts, head of the Scottish Agricultural College's dairy unit at Dumfries, said that while there had been major improvements in the quality of forage in recent years, he believed there was still considerable room for improvement.

The increased capacity of machinery has been a major component in the improvement in silage quality. While it used to take two or three weeks to make the first cut of silage, it now takes two or three days. "This shortened harvesting period has helped improve the quality of silage made," he said. "But farmers must also attend to the details, such as securing the clamp as soon as possible."

Roberts said that while farmers often knew their costs in making silage, many did not recognise that it cost much the same to make poor-quality forage as it did to make top quality. He said farmers should first work out what they wanted from the crop, as a high-yielding dairy herd has different forage needs to a suckler herd.

Scotgrass was last held in 2007 and Roberts said that even in that short period there had been a major shift in farmers' thinking over making more efficient use of nutrients coming from livestock farms.

Savings that can be made on buying in artificial fertiliser are now top of the agenda for many livestock farmers and that is why there is an increased interest in aspects of slurry handling, such as field injection.

Duncan Russell, of the event organiser, the Agricultural Engineers' Association, said that while overall farm machinery sales were down because of the recession, there was a fair bit of interest in new machinery from the livestock sector. The event, which he said could attract 7,000 visitors from across the UK, provides practical demonstrations on a host of grass and slurry handling equipment.

The south-west of Scotland was chosen for the event, he said, because it is one of the earliest parts of the country for silage cutting and many farmers could see equipment working prior to going home and carrying out the same work.