On Thursday May 12th, Agritech are delighted to be attending one of Ireland’s biennial national grassland technology events, FTMTA Grass and Muck 2016. Attendance in 2014 reached an impressive 9,500. Again this year, it is taking place at Gurteen Agricultural College Balingarry, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. Admission is €15 per adult which includes free parking, silage making demos among many other working machinery demonstrations.

Agritech will be located in the trade village where visitors can speak to our grass and re-seeding experts and view our latest product range. Watch out for our branded flags and be sure to come visit us on the day!

Get more information about the FTMTA Grass and Muck 2016 event and how to get tickets here.

Horses are extremely tight grazers of grass and the mixture composition should take account of this.  Sward density, hard wearing, and an even production of grass throughout the growing season with the option for a hay or haylage crop are key criteria in choosing a suitable mixture.

The benefits of reseeding are long documented, however Teagasc figures show that only 2-3% of all agricultural pastures are reseeded annually. This means that many pastures are over run with weed species leading to unproductive paddocks.

Reseeding of paddocks should be carried out where there has been excessive damage from poaching, the makeup of the current species is dominated by weed grasses or the quality of the forage produced from these paddocks is poor due to excessive grazing or constant cutting.

A typical paddock mixture should contain diploid varieties of perennial ryegrass with low sugar content together with creeping red fescue, timothy and smooth stalked meadow grass which will give a verstile mixture of nutrient rich grass species and capable of binding the sward for greater repair of the ground from hoof damage.

If choosing mixtures solely for the production of haylage, a mixture of perennial ryegrass together with hybrid ryegrass will give a high yielding mixture for multiple cuts in the year.

A further step in exploiting the potential of grass has been achieved through the application of biological seed stimulants.  All mixtures in the Tipperary range of grass mixtures from Agritech are GroQuik® dressed to improve seedling establishment by accelerating germination and root development. GroQuik® was originally proven at London University to improve the establishment of the grass crop by 20%. According to Agritech’s Technical Director, Seamus O’Slatarra, “It is through extensive in-house research and trials, GroQuik® has been further enhanced with the addition of numerous additional bio stimulants to the dressing. The end result today is that the benefits of the Gro-Quik® dressing are now persisting for years rather than months post establishment”.

This article was published in The Irish Field (Saturday April 30th 2016)

Agritech recommend our Tipperary Grass – Horse Grazing mixture.

Formulated to cater for diverse needs providing nutritious, persistent and palatable pastures.

• Suitable for hay, haylage or as a grazing mixture.

• Minimal poaching damage due to inclusion of perennial ryegrass, strong creeping red fescue, timothy and smooth stalked meadow grass.

• GroQuik® seed stimulant dressed for improved germination and establishment with benefits seen long beyond sowing and establishment.

For more information and to buy Horse Grazing mixture, contact your local distributor.

Read more about our Tipperary Grass range.

Agritech is renowned for quality grass seed mixtures. The Tipperary range is formulated to deliver high production, digestibility, palatability and persistency, with the Tipperary 4A mixture Agritech’s premium flag bearer. These essential characteristics give farmers the highest return available from their investment in reseeding. The end result is increased animal performance.

Grass seed assembly is the backbone of Agritech. They have long recognised that the key criteria in the assembly of grass mixtures is including varieties that complement each other, coupled with optimum levels of clover. New Teagasc research has confirmed that cows grazing tetraploid varieties and clover based swards yield significantly increased levels of milk. Furthermore, recent research is coming round to the Agritech opinion that tetraploid varieties are persistent and that groundcover is not a correct barometer of persistence after all. Our flagship mixture Tipperary 4A has, since its initial formulation in 1977, been based on the inclusion of adequate levels of tetraploids coupled with 1kg of clover.

Another key step in exploiting the potential of grass, achieved by Agritech, is the application of biological seed stimulants to every grass seed in all of the mixtures. The GroQuik® seed dressing is specifically designed to improve seedling establishment by accelerating germination and root development in both ryegrasses and clover. GroQuik® was originally demonstrated at London University to improve the establishment of the grass crop by 20%. Through extensive in-house research and trials, Agritech have continued to enhance GroQuik® with the addition of further bio stimulants to the dressing. The end result for farmers today is that the benefits of GroQuik® in grass swards persist for years post-establishment.

View Tipperary Grass brochure here