A Welsh farmer has adapted his grass seed choice and management to help on his journey to lower carbon emissions.

Dylan Jones at Castellior, Anglesey has been growing Wynnstay's Squire grass for the past 15 years. Farming in partnership with his father Wyn, he finishes around 1,600 dairy cross cattle a year on the 820-acre farm, taking between four and five cuts of high-yielding, high-protein silage a year, producing 2,500t to feed to the livestock.

Using the mixture as part of a two-to-three-year grass rotation has helped the pair move towards a low carbon system. Despite farming intensively, they have managed to reduce their carbon footprint to just 3.9kg of CO2 per kilogram (kg) of beef liveweight (LW) compared to the national average in Wales of 11-16 CO2/kg LW.

Prior to changing the system at Castellior, they used a seven-year rotation and had been growing a two-to-three-year ley in small quantities. In 2016 the Jones started the transition to a two-to-three-year rotation. And because of the volume of manure being used with the barley crops, the following grass seed performed exceptionally well with very little chemical nitrogen (N).

Growing nitrogen-fixing peas or red clover as a previous crop also plays a big role in establishing the following grass ley, as it generates enough growth that no chemical fertiliser is used for the first silage cut.

"We find that Squire really does the job," says Dylan, who is the third generation to farm at Castellior. "It has been part of our system for many years and has contributed to our success. We wanted to bring the carbon footprint down; we have achieved this and using the seed has been a key part of that.

"Squire, being a two-to-three-year ley, will perform with very little chemical N; it has red clover in the mix which is great at fixing N in the soil.  I'm passionate about hitting my environmental goals and every step I've taken towards net zero has been a profitable one for the business."

The Jones buy beef stores in at 18 to 24 months, with an average of 99 days to slaughter, meaning quality feed is important. They have also earnt some accolades along the way, being crowned winners of the British Grassland Society's Grassland Farmer of the Year 2024 and Farmers Weekly's Beef Farmer of the Year 2024.

"Even though we run an intensive system, we have proven it is possible to lower your carbon footprint when farming this way," notes Dylan. "I made the decision in 2016 to begin working towards net zero and bring our carbon emissions down. We are always pushing for high protein forage. We have recently had to start pulling the protein content of our feed back to 16% as it had reached up to 17-18% and the cattle were getting restless."

The family also grow 350 acres of barley and peas for feed, along with some red clover, and are entirely self-sufficient in the finishing enterprise. "We keep everything self-contained, using homegrown feed and doing all of the machine work ourselves," says Dylan. "We want to keep the business as self-sufficient as we can and strive to have as few carbon emissions as possible."

·        For more information visit www.wynnstay.co.uk