Grassland Farmer of the Year: Young Farmer Category

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Niall Moloney won the Young Farmer Category in the 2018 Grassland Farmer of the Year and on Thursday, 5 September he hosted a farm walk on his farm in Crecora, Co. Limerick.  Niall began to measure grass when he started farming full time in 2012, but only started to record data fully in 2016 on Pasturebase Ireland. His farm is walked weekly and twice a week if growth is above 80 kg per day. Last year the farm was walked and a grass cover was measured 38 times and this year Niall is on target to complete over 40 grass walks which he tries to complete early in the week. Niall enters all the information on the Pasturebase app on his phone which he has found hugely beneficial in the recording of data. Pre-grazing covers, cover per cow and average farm cover are 3 key figures Niall uses when making grazing management decisions.