This is the first issue of our new PASTORAL newsletter which will be coming out monthly to keep you up to date with the project.

Contents

46 Farms and growing
Field calibration
Field Labs are nearly here
Meet us

Forty-six farms and growing

It has been great speaking to many of you and hearing the enthusiasm around PASTORAL. We are monitoring over 400 fields and shortly our participating farms, from Cornwall to Aberdeenshire, will begin receiving weekly reports of biomass/dry matter. If you’ve not yet shared your fields with us, it’s not too late.

Not yet registered?
Complete our short survey telling us a bit about your farm and provide the locations and a few details about the fields you’d like us to monitor. Get in touch for a field data collection form if you need one.

We are open to all farms with pasture, regardless of management or size. If you have any questions about the project or being involved, please do get in touch either by email or call 07385 650 917.

We are still recruiting so spread the word!

Field calibration

As part of PASTORAL, we will be collecting field data to calibrate and validate our system, to make sure the reports we provide relate to what you see on the ground. We need to know how much grass there really is in each field we’re monitoring to compare with our modelling.

There are different ways you can help us collect this information:

• Share dry matter/biomass measures you take e.g. from a rising plate meter or sward stick
• Join a Field Lab group in your area and receive support measuring grass
• Allow the PASTORAL team to visit

If you would like to be involved in this part of the project, let us know or complete our quick form. Thanks to everyone who has responded already! We’re sorry we won’t be able to visit everyone but we do hope to see you at some of our workshops, whether in person or online.

We would like to thank Joe Baker for welcoming us to Windshiel Farm to test some of our ideas and equipment.

Field Labs are nearly here

We will be running three regional Field Lab groups as part of PASTORAL. Field Labs are an opportunity to connect with other participants and some of the PASTORAL project team to discuss some of the data you will have received from us. They’ll be a chance to see what this looks like in the field, talk about other ways of measuring grass and how you might use this information in your grazing or cutting plans.

Dates for your diary
Northern area beef and sheep Field Lab near Moulton, Yorkshire, on Monday 6th June.
South West, dairy focussed Field Lab near Bruton, Somerset, on Friday 10th June.

While there will be a focal enterprise for each group, workshop discussion will be led by participants and all are welcome to attend, look out for more detail on events in your area.

Meet us

We will be at RABDF’s Down to Earth, hosted by Tim and Louise Downes at The Farm, Longnor on 15th June.

We will also be at Groundswell on 22nd and 23rd June, we’ll share more details on where to find us closer to the time.