Grasscheck

GrassCheck is a grass monitoring project involving dairy, beef and sheep farms. The  project aims to provide high quality, up-to-date grass information to assist farmers with grassland management decisions and support improvements in grass utilisation on farm.

Farmers across the GrassCheck monitoring network have been provided with electronic rising plate-meters to measure grass covers on a weekly basis throughout the grazing season. Every fortnight each farm submits grass samples for analysis. Each farm is also equipped with an automatic weather station which records temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and soil moisture.

Throughout the growing season, this data provides a valuable source of weekly local & regional grass growth updates with focussed management tips produced for the farming community. The data from the project has been used in the development of predictive models which, using grass growth and weather forecast data, will provide 7 and 14 day estimates of grass growth. 

Growth and quality data will be published weekly throughout the growing season.

To access the latest GrassCheck bulletins, click on the logos below.

GrassCheck is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the College of Agricuture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) and the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL)