A lucky guess at this year’s Grassland event secured an Opico grass-harrow for Welsh beef and sheep farmer Huw Jones (centre).

The 5m harrow was the prize in a Nickerson Direct/Farmers Weekly competition which asked entrants to estimate the number of balls (195) in the cab of a tractor on the Farmers Weekly stand at the show. Huw is pictured with Nickerson Direct’s Simon Broddle (L) and Opico’s Nick Rider (R).

In partnership with his father Eifion, Mr Jones runs 60 Welsh Black beef cattle and 120 cross-bred ewes across 50ha (120acres) of permanent pasture near Bridgend, south Wales.

He is hoping the £3,300 harrow will help to improve the productivity of his ageing grass swards which tend to suffer from moss problems. By removing weeds and weaker tillers it will allow the more vigorous grasses to flourish. The extra aeration will also promote nitrogen mineralisation to further boost grass growth.

For further advice on your grassland management, contact Simon Broddle on sbroddle@nickerson.co.uk