Barenbrug Good Grass Guide - Index 5 - How to Score Your Fields for Maximum Profitability

Farmers looking to increase yields and profitability by improving their grassland now have a brand new video to watch, which will help them gauge grass quality and work out what to do with fields in different states of repair.
The seven-minute film, produced by our agricultural team, takes viewers through our five-stage field-indexing system - a simple means of benchmarking pasture status.
Shot in and around Cropvale Research and Trials site in Worcestershire, the video gives practical pointers to help farmers grade their grass and deal with the challenges typically faced at the five levels identified on the company’s sliding scale of pasture performance.
Our field indexing system is based on the ‘1 to 5 conditioning index’ used by many farmers to grade their stock. In our model, grass is graded from level ‘5’ fields - which are considered highly productive - to swards that score a ‘1’ and are in need of immediate action. Each index is introduced by one of our forage grass experts from a corresponding field. Advice is provided on maintaining fields that are deemed healthy and profitable. There are handy hints for nurturing swards that are in need of work but still worthy of investment. There is also clear guidance for dealing with fields that are past their best and where starting from scratch would make sense.
To support the release of its video, we have also produced a hardback Good Grass Guide that sets out its field indexing system in more detail. The idea is that farmers can obtain a copy of the handy reference guide and take it out into the field to help them grade their own grass. The printed edition features photographs that show farmers what to look for when scoring a field plus practical advice on what to do to fix fields in need of work. There is also space at the back of the guide for farmers to store notes about their own fields.
Find out more at www.barenbrug.co.uk/GoodGrassGuide