Why reseed?

RESEEDED pastures have higher grass growth rates compared to old varieties. This is particularly evident at the shoulders of the year when grass growth is less. How much more grass will be grown depends on the type of sward that it replaced. Fields with old permanent pastures with a small proportion of perennial ryegrass will grow a lot more when replaced by new perennial ryegrass.

New varieties are better quality and more digestible so animal performance increases. The total cost of reseeding is around €323/acre.

What’s the best method?

Numerous studies have shown very little difference between establishment methods. All methods are successful once carried out correctly.

Each method has pros and cons. Ploughing gives quickest establishment but it can bring up stones, bury soil nutrients and release both carbon and nitrogen from the soil. Minimum tillage takes a bit more time to as the old sward needs to die back fully before cultivating and seedling emergence can be a bit slower too. However, there are much fewer stones to pick and it’s better for the environment.

What varieties to pick?

Most co-ops and merchants have their own grass seed mixtures, with and without clover. In general, the quality of seeds in these mixtures have increased dramatically over the last number of years. All the main merchants have carefully chosen their mixtures. The introduction of the Pasture Profit Index (PPI) has been a big help in this. The index gives each variety an economic value based on its traits. Only varieties on the recommended lists will have a PPI, so that remains the first port of call when judging a variety.

After that, you should pick varieties with intermediate to late heading dates within a few days of each other. Most mixtures will have a mix of tetraploid and diploid grass varieties and this is fine.