Andrew Mulhare runs an autumn-calving beef suckler herd in Co Laois, alongside a tillage operation, with bulls brought through to slaughter at under 16 months and heifers retained for breeding or sold live as forward stores.Andrew had selected the multispecies sward (MSS) option on his Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application several times over the past year, though never succeeded in getting a paddock sprayed off and sowed.
Andrew Mulhare runs an autumn-calving beef suckler herd in Co Laois, alongside a tillage operation, with bulls brought through to slaughter at under 16 months and heifers retained for breeding or sold live as forward stores.
Andrew had selected the multispecies sward (MSS) option on his Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application several times over the past year, though never succeeded in getting a paddock sprayed off and sowed.
However, this year, Andrew was successful in getting a 1ha paddock close to the yard established.
The minimum area for the MSS action under BISS is 1ha, with Andrew selecting a 1ha paddock to meet this criteria.
There was some difficulty in attaining a mix that satisfied the MSS action, though the mix that was eventually used was:
Perennial ryegrass (Meiduno) - 3.3kg. Perennial ryegrass (Aston King) - 3.3kg. Timothy – 0.7kg. Red Clover - 1.5kg.White Clover - 1.5kg. Plantain - 1kg. Chicory - 0.7kg.Sowing process
After a tight grazing, the Laois farmer sprayed off the paddock. It was left for 10 days before he used a disc across the field twice in different directions.
A compound fertiliser of 10:5:25 that was left over from his tillage crops was spread at a rate of 2.5 bags per acre and the contractor used a one-pass to sow the seed the following day.
Andrew also rolled the field after this to ensure good soil-to-seed contact. If the multispecies works out well, he plans to sow other fields using all his own equipment and a broadcast spreader.
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