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Performance plus sustainability: Germinal Grassland Guide

Find out how to increase livestock performance from forage while unlocking sustainable benefits at the same time. Read the guide below or click to download it to your device.

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Food production and farm incomes

Reducing climate risk

Agriculture is moving in a different direction, it must. Food security is one of the greatest challenges we face and as the global population continues to grow, the pressure on food production systems is immense.

Climate change is increasingly causing adverse impacts on agricultural production. The effects are evident, with increased droughts, severe rainfall, and temperature extremes becoming more common. Nature degradation also presents real challenges to farm business operations and financial returns. Soil compaction and the loss of organic carbon are serious threats to soil health, affecting agricultural production and our resilience to climate change.

Sustainable food systems

To build resilient food production systems, grassland management must evolve. Farmers play a pivotal role in this transformation as stewards of our grasslands.

Climate smart grassland management is an approach that supports the shift to sustainable food production systems. Reducing emissions, protecting soil health and water quality, and improving biodiversity are all vital for future generations.

Germinal is helping agriculture respond to these impacts and accelerate access to practical adaptation solutions.

Climate smart strategies ensure that farms can remain profitable and resilient while contributing to global efforts to combat climate change.

Science that supports agriculture

Plant breeding is fundamental because the answers are there in new traits. Enhanced varieties with pest and disease resistance, higher yields, and resilience to climate stress are key to optimising production with plant genomics paving the way to a more sustainable future.

Our investment in research continues to focus on developing new climate smart technologies. Farmers are already adopting innovative practices to grow the right crops in the right places, enhancing efficiencies on their land.

As responsible businesses within the food chain, we can all contribute and take positive steps to ensure agriculture remains a strong natural resource and legacy for the following generations.

Our focus on ruminant livestock

Our mission is to help farmers respond to the impact of climate change and build resilient food production systems in the face of a rapidly growing population.

Performance plus sustainability

This guide is built around five key climate change challenges and offers practical grassland management information with links to useful online resources:

Reducing emissions – improving air quality.
Soil health – protecting our soils and improving fertility.
Nutrient efficiency – reducing inorganic fertility inputs.
Plant resilience – using tolerant varieties.
Biodiversity – supporting nature recovery and wildlife habitats.

How Germinal is doing this

• Sustainable product solutions – giving farmers access to new science-based technologies from our R&D division, Germinal Horizon.
• Specialist forage knowledge – from lab to farm, Germinal is bringing science, agronomy, and practical hands-on farming together to lead the way in sustainable food production.
• Trusted advice – with our 200-year legacy of grass and forage seed expertise, Germinal partners with farmers sharing technical knowledge and best practice for grassland management.

We’re helping farmers

• Protecting resources – best practice management
• Optimising efficiency – get more from less
• Adopting technology – innovation in plant breeding

1. Reducing emissions

Grasslands are a vital carbon sink, absorbing CO₂ from the atmosphere as grass grows, and sequestering it in soil as organic matter. Ruminant livestock that graze them, produce gases that contribute to climate change. There is an important need for agriculture to reduce these harmful gases from cattle and sheep production to improve both air and water quality.

Greenhouse gases (GHG) include carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O).

Grass is not just grass, get climate smart performance

Germinal’s innovative Aber High Sugar Grass is scientifically proven to reduce emissions and is particularly effective at reducing ammonia and nitrous oxide. Feeding these modern high-quality varieties maximises performance and also benefits the environment.

How does Aber High Sugar Grass work?

Grazing Aber HSG enables livestock to convert more of the protein in grass to milk and meat, with less being emitted as pollutants.

Infographic explaining how Aber High Sugar Grass works when consumed by livestock, improving production and reducing emissions

Bred by Germinal Horizon, Aber High Sugar Grass varieties are designed to reduce emissions. With N₂O being 270 times more potent than CO₂, Aber HSG plays a fundamental role in reducing these emissions when used at scale.

If you are looking at the environmental impact of livestock emissions – find out more about our Climate Smart Clean range.

2. Soil health

Soil management is fundamental to all agricultural systems. We rely on soil to produce our food, it’s vital for both people and planet. Degradation and declining fertility of agricultural soils through erosion, loss of organic matter, contamination and compaction have a significant impact on production and threaten the natural ecosystem through loss of biodiversity.

By focusing on soil health, farmers can reduce costs, use fewer chemicals and rebuild biological life in the soil, making it healthier, productive and more resilient to extreme weather. Healthy soil can also absorb massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions – playing a key role in the drive to tackle climate breakdown and the soil biome biodiversity crisis.

Biodiversity in our soils

Maintaining good soil health is key to enhancing productivity and improving soil structure, organic matter, drainage and fertility. Soil is a complex biological system containing a community of bacteria and fungi. The biodiversity of these soil organisms positively impacts ecosystem functions like nutrient and water movement which are directly related to crop yield.

Using multi-species to improve soil fertility

Diverse grassland swards incorporating legumes and deep-rooting forb species like plantain and chicory can deliver many advantages including an increase in animal performance and a boost for biodiversity supporting insects, birds and wildlife.

Multi-species

Herbal leys are a complex mix of grasses, herbs and legumes. Having a diverse species mix makes the sward work harder overall, with different plants performing different functions.

Alongside chicory, plantain and clover, mixtures that include mineral-rich species such as yarrow, sheep’s parsley, and burnet support both livestock nutrition and biodiversity.

Benefits of multi-species

• Improved soil structure and soil carbon
• Greater production from livestock
• Greater rooting mass
• Improved trace element and mineral access
• Improved soil aeration
• Increased stress tolerance and resilience to drought

Start with soil fertility

Find out more about soil types, testing, and pH levels.

Get serious about soil – find out more about our Climate Smart Thrive range.

3. Nutrient efficiency

Nutrient use efficiency refers to the ability of plants to use fertiliser efficiently for growth. Lack of Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) availability can limit plant growth. This is usually addressed by applying fertilisers to improve yields. However, the use of artificial fertiliser is a key source of GHG emissions and excessive N and P negatively impacts natural ecosystems through nitrogen leaching.

Using clover to optimise nitrogen efficiency

Clover is a nitrogen-fixing legume that essentially creates its own fertiliser – and feeds nearby plants, making them a sustainable way of providing nutrients naturally within the crop. This reduces reliance on artificial nitrogen fertilisers.

Well-managed resources are at the heart of sustainable farming systems. Choosing varieties that are more self-sufficient in accessing or producing these nutrients provides positive benefits for the environment and a significant reduction in costs.

Clover capability

Adding clover to a grass pasture provides further benefits to livestock through an increase in protein content, improved palatability, nutrition and soil quality.

Benefits of clover

Homegrown protein, traceable and inexpensive
Reduces nitrous oxide emissions from chemical N application
High nectar and pollen to attract pollinators
Helps improve water quality
Improves soil fertility
Reduces input costs
Nutrient-rich for animal performance

Nitrogen fixation

The clover plant works with beneficial bacteria called rhizobia to fix atmospheric nitrogen and transform it into ammonia (NH₃), a soil-bound form that plants can use. The plant cannot carry out this process itself, but it is vital for the production of the building blocks of proteins. The bacteria live in root nodules that operate like small power factories that nourish the surrounding plants.

If you want to benefit from the power of clover, find out more about our Climate Smart Capture range.

4. Plant resilience

Increasingly frequent changing weather patterns bring into focus the need for grassland systems that are tougher in times of environmental stress. Unpredictable rain or drought due to climate change is leading to increased risk and higher rates of plant stress and disease. To help manage these risks and maintain productivity, introducing greater diversity is a sustainable management option.

Risk reduction

Multi-species swards including clover have proven their value in periods of dry weather, particularly on free-draining soils, where deep-rooting species can access moisture from deep in the soil.

DoubleRoot hybrid clover

Germinal’s DoubleRoot is a climate smart forage and a confident homegrown protein choice that reduces risk when cold and drought are a real possibility.

This unique clover is a hybrid of Caucasian clover and white clover that delivers the benefits of both species, to enhance farm production and bring environmental gains.

Germinal’s DoubleRoot can adapt in adverse conditions and is suitable for many systems since it is drought tolerant, persistent under grazing and very palatable for livestock.

As a companion to grass, it has many advantages including soil improvement, nitrogen fixation and boosting the food supply for bees and insects. Clover’s nectar-rich flowers attract many pollinators which support biodiversity.

The science of DoubleRoot – a progressive clover for climate smart farming.

Find out more about our Climate Smart Adapt range.

5. Biodiversity

Food production and environmental schemes

The Climate Smart Restore range of mixtures has been formulated to meet the demands and requirements of the various environmental schemes across the UK and Ireland. The fundamental objectives of these initiatives are the same – to improve soils and biodiversity, support vital ecosystems and reduce the carbon footprint of production.

Our expertly formulated mixtures contain high quality multi-species varieties with Germinal Aber High Sugar Grasses (Aber HSG) for added production and environmental benefits.

Livestock and nature perform well together when land is sustainably managed. With a climate smart approach to grassland we can all benefit from improved carbon sequestration, water quality, soil fertility, biodiversity, wildlife habitats, and ecosystem resilience.

Designed by forage specialists – find out more about our Climate Smart Restore range.

Essential grassland management guides