Grassland farmer impressed our judges
This year's winner of the British Grassland Society's Grassland Farmer of the Year award is John Martin from County Down, Northern Ireland, who runs a 680 ewe flock with a small number of beef cattle.
He also has a diversification enterprise growing short rotation willow to supply wood chip for biomass boilers.
The judges were impressed by how John has developed a profitable enterprise through high yields of quality grass underpinned by the use of innovation, research and a high emphasis placed on the environment.
The grazing mentors project farm walk near Shrewsbury which was originally planned for November 12 has been postponed to the spring. The project has involved linking up recognised proficient farmers in grassland management with livestock or dairy farmers who are looking to develop and improve their skills in utilising grassland.
The farm walk will be the final event of the current project which commenced in 2016. We will update the details of the walk on the website when they are confirmed.
Work continues preparing for the 2020 summer meeting which will hosted by the Ulster Grassland Society and Fermanagh Grassland Club, and also on the 13th BGS research conference in late March which will focus on the topic of multi-species swards.
A key project for the BGS team over the next few months will be working on updating the BGS website. This will include key improvements to the design, layout and functionality. The new website is planned to be launched in late spring 2020.
Tom Goatman is British Grassland Society chief executive.
