Dairy man's 'grass roots' award
Shropshire dairy farmer Neale Manning was announced as runner-up in the British Grassland Society, National Grassland Management Competition 2007, at the Dairy Show on January 30 after judging was delayed due to F&M.
Shropshire dairy farmer Neale Manning was announced as runner-up in the British Grassland Society, National Grassland Management Competition 2007, at the Dairy Show on January 30 after judging was delayed due to F&M.
He is a member of the Shropshire Grassland Society and Shropshire Stargrazers groups and won the central competition before going through to the finals.
The national competition, sponsored by DLF-Trifoilum and GrowHow UK, is run annually with dozens of BGS affiliated local grassland societies running local competitions and entering into seven regional rounds, from which three finalists are selected for on-farm judging.
Neale's system is based on achieving 4,000 litres of grazed grass, from 6,000-litre cows that are easy to keep and deep bodied.
Ten years ago, he set up a new grazing system with tracks through the centre of fields.
The two main advantages of this, he says, are that they dry quickly in the wind because they are not sheltered by hedges and the electric fencing can be opened at any place along the side of a paddock to allow an entry or exit to be used just once, minimizing poaching
His 165 cows were out from February1 to late November in 2007.
The winner was Arthur Owen from North Wales and the other runner up was Thomas Fisher from Cumbria.
