QMS holds sessions to advise on better grassland management

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is running a series of meetings to help farmers improve their grazing management.

The Fundamentals of Grazing for Growth meetings form part of the red meat levy body’s Better Grazing programme.

QMS knowledge exchange specialist Emily Grant said the main aim of the meetings, which are free to attend, was to ensure farmers were confident about being able to make the best strategic grazing management decisions throughout the whole grazing year.

“Grass is a relatively easy crop to grow but a much harder crop to manage well. How it is grazed can impact on its growth, availability and quality and farmers can hear how to react to seasonal changes in grass growth,” said Mrs Grant.

A key speaker at the meetings is sheep and grassland specialist Poppy Frater, from SAC Consulting. Ms Frater hails from a beef and sheep farm in Northumbria, and she has previously worked in New Zealand where she gained expertise in grazing systems and grassland utilisation, including rotational grazing.

She said: “If we know how grass grows and how it responds to grazing and what limits its production, we can design our systems to help promote growth and increase production per hectare.”

All meetings run from 10.30am to 3.30pm and they include lunch. During the morning session, Ms Frater will outline the key principles of grass and grazing management, and in the afternoon the group will visit a nearby farm to see and discuss the practicalities of managing grazing.

Meetings planned for early next month include one on Tuesday June 5 at Bluesky Experiences, Bachilton House, in Methven, near Perth.