Sheep Grazing Wheat

A new tactic is being explored on the farm at the moment, grazing some wheat crops on Bredon Hill with some borrowed sheep. The crop is quite advanced for the time of year and has a lot of disease in it (septoria). The sheep will be able to help by eating these leaves (and the septoria) meaning the disease pressure will be lower in the spring, hopefully reducing the need for so much fungicide later in the spring. The dry winter weather means there is little compaction from the sheep’s feet. The grazing will also encourage thicker, stronger stems when the crop starts to grow helping to keep it standing (no lodging) through to harvest.
The downsides might be that we remove too many leaves and slow crop development or what we don’t get even grazing and then have different crop structures in the same fields. Lots to learn but good to start somewhere.