Some of our winter wheat crops are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves. In farming terms we would say that they've got "wet feet". Poorly formed root systems sat in standing water, plants stressed and brown. Yet standing at the back of the farmyard looking down on the land below, I can see some fields are a vibrant green in contrast to these patchy, sick fields. These are the few fields that have been grazed for last few weeks by sheep brought onto the land by a local shepherd. We have never done this before so it is a bit of a trial with the aim to reduce our pesticide use. Ordinarily if we saw livestock in cereals we probably had a broken fence somewhere!
We managed to graze about a third of the wheat on the farm, leaving the sheep to chew the wheat down to soil level before moving them on to the next field. These four legged mowers will hopefully have several effects. Firstly, they remove dead and diseased leaves to prevent the spread of infection to newer emerging leaves. Secondly, the act of grazing stresses the plant in a way that causes it to put down more roots below ground and more tillers above ground. Lastly, their droppings return valuable nutrients to the soil as well as acting as a food source for invertebrates and micro fauna and flora.
This trial is actually nothing new. Sheep have been used for centuries for weed and disease control in addition to giving back vital fertility to the soil - known as "the Golden Hoof". These qualities were utilised in a time when farmers couldn't nip to the spray store for the solution to problem. But we are now in a situation where the active ingredients in pesticides are being lost far quicker than new products are coming onto the market, prices are rising and we as an industry are beginning to realise that the continued reliance on artificial inputs is unsustainable.
The sheep aren't quite the answer to all our prayers. Incorrectly timed grazing could damage yields and poaching the ground could causing more weeds to chit. Later in the season we may still encounter disease problems but that is a problem we can tackle with better plant nutrition and plant breeding (that's a whole other blog post!). A major issue we encountered was that we simply didn't have enough sheep to cover the ground fast enough. The most effective grazing was when the stocking rate was high - a lot of sheep grazing a smaller area and being moved quickly. This is all fine tuning though and I'm hopeful that the trial we be a success. As I mentioned, the grazed fields certainly look healthier, more green, lush and even. We will know for sure in the next few weeks as we monitor disease levels in the crops and then ultimately at harvest when we can count the trailers going into the shed. It is important to remember that not all the impacts are as easy to measure or might not be quite so obvious but can be equally impactful in the longer term. The improvement in soil biology cannot be understated for example. It is a positive step forward in reducing our usage of artificial inputs on our farm and for now we just need to find a few more sheep ready for next year!
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