Grazing cereals
Full project title:
Winter grazing cereals: The effects on crop-weed competition and grain yieldContract period:
1 October 2014 to 31 December 2016Main funder:
DFFContact staff at ORC:
Mr. Dominic AmosOther staff involved:
Ambrogio Costanzo Anja ViewegerProject aims
Black-grass is a particularly pernicious and difficult to control annual weed on both, organic and conventional farms across Britain. Evolved herbicide resistance and later germination means black-grass is becoming even harder to control through normal methods of pre-emergence spraying and false seed beds.
This project aims to assess whether traditional methods of grazing winter cereals with sheep before and/or after the winter months in combination with an early sown crop can have a beneficial impact on crop weed competition without grain yield loss as a result of grazing.
ORC's role
ORC will manage a two year trial at John Pawsey’s Shimpling Park Farm, Suffolk. The two year trial will look at early and normal sowing timings and either grazed or un-grazed treatments in a winter wheat field with significant black-grass infestations.
Current progress highlights
- Article in ORC Bulletin 121 Can black grass be controlled by grazing sheep?
- See Sheep grazing to control black grass
