Farming using regenerative principles is helping an organic beef and sheep farm to reduce costs and build business resilience.

Intensive rotational grazing over a number of year had produced positive results but switching to a system of higher grass covers, using high stock density, seemed like the next area of potential gains, says Phil Cowcher, who farms with his parents, Tom and Eva, and sister, Nia, at Penrhiw Farm near Llandysul.

High density grazing with entry covers of 2,800-4,500kgDM/ha with a longer than usual grass recovery period now sees stock removed from fields when residuals are 1600-2,500kgDM/ha, depending on the time of the year and class of stock.

By sub-dividing paddocks, they are grazed at a high stocking density – over 50,000kgLW/ha.

At that density the stock are less selective.

“They graze it to a higher residual much more evenly and that allows quality to be maintained for the following round, whilst ensuring rapid regrowth,’’ Mr Cowcher explains.

“When we were taking it down to 1500kgDM/ha there wasn’t enough left for the grass to get going again.’’

Fields are rested for 30-50 days during the main growing season, with up to 150 days rest during winter before re-grazing.

The result is higher volumes of grass across the farm.

“We have so much grass in front of the cattle and sheep that we can easily go more days than we did without running short, there is more of a buffer and that makes everything much less stressful,’’ says Mr Cowcher.

The aim is to only graze grass once visually fully recovered, regardless of cover – this means at least three pointy leaves on a ryegrass plant, he says.

“We usually aim to graze whilst grass is leafy, to maintain quality, however we do sometimes graze more mature grass with cattle, to draw out their rotation, or act as a buffer during dry periods, before going back into leafy pasture once grass growth recovers.”

Growing the grass longer makes it deeper rooting and that has improved soil biology, he adds.

“The natural seed bank is coming through, species like red clover, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, so we have a better composition of species.’’

To regenerate poorer performing fields, he overseeds with diverse seed mixes to stimulate soil biology – cocksfoot in particular because it suits the land at Penrhiw and it responds well to grazing.

“We buy the odd herb and clover seed mixes and overseed in front of the stock with a quad and a spinner and let them tread the seed in.’’

There have also been changes to the way cattle and sheep are grazed.

After weaning, lambs are grazed on white clover with high covers and are followed by cows and calves in a leader follower system.

It helps to keep the growth rates up in the lambs.

“We had seen a reduction in individual weights since intensifying the grazing although overall we were producing more kilograms of lamb per hectare but by using a leader-follower system we have seen individual weights improve to what they were previously whilst maintaining higher kilograms of lamb per hectare,’’ says Mr Cowcher.

Lambs are also integrated with cattle to reduce worm burdens, aiming where possible to alternate sheep and cattle in each grazing round to break parasite cycles.

“We tried grazing them together which did work fairly well but it can be a bit disruptive for the lambs so we now swap them around up until weaning and have slightly lower covers for the sheep by having a shorter rest period from cattle to sheep,’’ Mr Cowcher explains.

The overall aim is to make the business resilient and profitable, by reducing costs whilst working with nature.

“It is very satisfying to see the pasture developing year on year just from management and it is much less stressful because we have a feed buffer in a dry spell,’’ says Mr Cowcher.