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Livestock - Grasstrac Booklet - 06

“Grasstrac enables me to finish more lambs at grass”
Bill Norman - Somerset

Farm Profile
Bill is a farmer/contractor who owns a 200-acre, all-grass farm as 1200 feet in the Brendon Hills. The land is freedraining, lightish loam.

The Stock
The main enterprise is a 500-ewe flock of home-bred Mules crossed with a Texel to produce fat lambs. Lambing starts in the 3rd week of February and the ewes and lambs are kept in for 2 to 3 weeks before being turned out to grass. Lambs are sold from June onwards to produce a 19-20kg carcass.

The Problem
When the stocking rate was lower, Bill was able to finish all his lambs off grass; but as the stocking rate rose, the number of lambs sold as stores also increased. Bill decided that a boost to grass nutrients was needed and he treated 110 acres with Grasstrac in 2004 and 125 acres in 2005.

The Grasstrac Experience
The grass is eaten down more uniformly and because of this increased efficiency, fertiliser use has decreased to approximately 90 units of N per acre a year. 95% of lambs are now finished off grass and lambing percentage at scanning has improved from around 175% up to 194%. “Grasstrac does exactly what it says it does,” comments Bill.