Biodiversity for healthier dairy cattle and improved soil fertility

Multi species grassland offers more benefits than biodiversity alone

What are the advantages of multi species grassland? More bees and insects, lots of people will answer. But herbs bring more benefits than biodiversity alone. What about excellent drought tolerance, and higher milk yields?

Maintaining yields of dry matter

You may well have faced the problem in recent years: the struggle during dry summers to grow enough roughage for the winter ration. Using the grass-fodder herb mix NutriHerb helps maintain your yields of dry matter. The intensive, deep roots of herbs use all the moisture in the soil to the maximum. In addition, clover also ensures good ground cover that limits evaporation from the soil, and means you don’t have to irrigate. This saves a lot of labour and is a step towards sustainable agriculture.

Excellent nutritional value and yield

It would be wrong to think that multi species grassland means sacrificing nutritional value and yields. The nutritional value of NutriHerb varies between 910 and 960 FUM (feed unit milk) and 150 to 210 grams of crude protein per kg of dry matter over several cuts in several years. A study by the Louis Bolk Institute shows that in a dry year like 2019, NutriHerb produces 20 percent more dry matter than a standard BG3 mixture with less fertiliser.

Higher milk yields

The high intake and utilisation of NutriHerb improves the milk yields of cows. This was also the conclusion of the research carried out by CAH Vilentum University of Applied Sciences in Dronten. During several rounds of grazing, they compared the milk yields of cows that received NutriHerb with tall fescue compared to cows that were only grazed on a plot with perennial ryegrass.

Choose the NutriHerb blend that suits you

If you prefer quality over yields, we recommend you choose NutriHerb Engels. Grass predominates slightly more in this mixture; the ratio in the field is about two-thirds grass to one-third herbs. Although it is best not to sow fodder herbs on areas that suffer from weeds, it is best to choose NutriHerb Engels when in doubt. If your main concern is yields, then you are better off with NutriHerb tall fescue. In the NutriHerb fescue mixture, herbs have a better chance to establish themselves and there is a 50/50 ratio between grass and herbs.

Overseed herbs? No problem!

Another option is to first tidy up your grassland, then sow the herbs later. The best results are obtained if you overseed your plot with an interrow cultivator. For more information about this, see our NutriHerb page.

View the cultivation manual

Sowing and maintaining grass fodder herbs requires special care, so we have prepared an extensive cultivation manual for you. You can visit it here.

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