Arable farms often have a limited crop rotation typically of two cereal crops followed by an oilseed or pulse crop only. The lack of diversity in a rotation allows for a build-up of weeds, particularly grassweeds in cereals, and an over-reliance on herbicides for controlling them. When weeds are not controlled and set seed, seeds shed and build up in the soil seedbank and so the weed cycle persists. There is also an ever-increasing issue of herbicide resistance in both grass and broad-leaved weeds, so chemical control options are very limited. Bringing livestock into an arable rotation can act as a cultural control tool for weed management as it widens the cropping rotation, introducing crop diversity and it can provide an opportunity for the weed seedbank to decline under a multi-year ley. This reduces pressure on the available herbicides within the arable part of the system and there is less requirement for pesticides during the ley, resulting in an overall reduction in pesticide use.
Document no: 8. UK_PA_BS03_grazing in arable_EN
