Grassland Management
About 115 ha of grass leys are maintained on Cockle Park, supplemented by 80 ha of grass parks to give an overall stocking rate of 2.6 livestock units per hectare. Leys are normally direct seeded after winter barley with a general purpose mixture of tetraploid and diploid ryegrasses and white clover.
The dairy herd is intensively paddock grazed between 7.5 and 4 cows per hectare throughout the grazing season (April - September). The sheep flock is intensively set stocked at 15 ewes plus lambs per hectare and as a routine the flock is used throughout the season to complete defoliation of the dairy cow pastures. This practice seeks to maintain short, evenly grazed swards with high tiller counts and densities whilst allowing cows to achieve high intakes of grazed herbage.
The aim is to conserve 2,500 tonnes of clamp silage from two grass cuts. Grass is normally wilted for at least 24 hours to raise the dry matter concentration to 25% before ensiling. Bacterial innoculants are applied when necessary at the time of ensiling. Small quantities of hay are conserved for feeding to the ewes and young calves.
A small area of permanenet pasture accomodates the Palace Leas plots; the site of an ongoing grazing and hay cutting experiment.