Grassland & Forage
Grassland & Forage: For Farmers
What Grassland & Forage changes for the person actually doing the work.
For the person running the business, the test of any farm software is whether it removes work or adds it. Grassland is the largest crop in the UK by area and the least measured. This module treats it as a managed crop: measured covers, planned rotations, budgeted forage, costed reseeds and silage analysed against the ration it has to fill. It links directly to the livestock modules so a forage deficit surfaces as a purchased feed cost before it becomes one.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Dairy grazier, Cheshire
220 cows, spring block
Needs to hit grazing targets weekly or milk from forage collapses.
- Map and measure the grazing platform
- Set annual forage budget and stocking plan
- Walk and measure covers on a weekly cycle
- Allocate paddocks and adjust rotation
Upland sheep farmer, Cumbria
LFA hill flock
Needs to prove grassland management for scheme income that now exceeds trading profit.
- Set annual forage budget and stocking plan
- Walk and measure covers on a weekly cycle
- Allocate paddocks and adjust rotation
- Cut, ensile and analyse conserved forage
Beef finisher
Grass-finished system
Needs forage quality to hit finishing weights without bought-in concentrate.
- Walk and measure covers on a weekly cycle
- Allocate paddocks and adjust rotation
- Cut, ensile and analyse conserved forage
- Reconcile forage supply against livestock demand
End to end
How Grassland & Forage runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Map and measure the grazing platform
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Set annual forage budget and stocking plan
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Walk and measure covers on a weekly cycle
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Allocate paddocks and adjust rotation
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Cut, ensile and analyse conserved forage
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Reconcile forage supply against livestock demand
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Plan reseeds and sward improvement
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Report grassland productivity and scheme compliance
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Grassland & Forage does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Grass cover measurement with plate meter, sward stick and satellite-derived biomass
- Rotational grazing planner with residency, rest period and pre- and post-grazing cover targets
- Feed wedge visualisation with surplus and deficit identification
Operate and monitor
- Annual forage budget balancing growth curve against livestock demand
- Silage and haylage clamp management with dry matter, ME, protein and fermentation quality
- Reseed cost and payback model against measured production uplift
Comply and evidence
- Herbal ley and multi-species sward planning with scheme action mapping
- Clover content assessment and nitrogen fixation credit
- Grazing infrastructure planning — paddocks, tracks, water points and fencing
Analyse and improve
- Nutrient offtake and return modelling across the grazing platform
- Buffer feeding decision support linked to the livestock ration module
- Soil compaction and poaching risk mapping by field and by season
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Tonnes of dry matter grown per hectare
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 26 Median 58 Upper quartile 73
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Utilised grass per hectare
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 37 Median 57 Upper quartile 76
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Milk or liveweight gain from forage
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 27 Median 58 Upper quartile 78
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Cost per tonne of dry matter
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 35 Median 55 Upper quartile 87
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Days at grazing
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 35 Median 47 Upper quartile 87
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Grassland & Forage
The problem: Needs to hit grazing targets weekly or milk from forage collapses.
What they do
- Map and measure the grazing platform
- Set annual forage budget and stocking plan
- Walk and measure covers on a weekly cycle
- Allocate paddocks and adjust rotation
What changes
- Tonnes of dry matter grown per hectare
- Utilised grass per hectare
- Milk or liveweight gain from forage
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Tonnes of dry matter grown per hectare
- 02Utilised grass per hectare
- 03Milk or liveweight gain from forage
- 04Cost per tonne of dry matter
- 05Days at grazing
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.