The Mostviertler Farmer Cluster explore pollinator-friendly planting techniques and install information boards...
During the vegetation period we organised seeding material for flowering strips as well as an oat grass seeding mixture, rich in species for the seeding or reseeding in the Farmer Cluster grassland areas.
Each farmer could freely decide where they want to use such seeding mixtures. Some extra mixtures were offered in case of different soil conditions like wet soil areas. Farmers got the know-how for the most suitable seeding procedure.
We supported the farmers during the growing of the new seeded grassland and gave information about what must be done in order to enable the best growing conditions for the grassland seedlings, for example a necessary cleaning cut, reduced fertilisation and so on.
The top picture shows the reseeding of the oat grass seeding mixture in mid-August through a slot seeder. Before reseeding the meadow was cut to 5 cm in length. The slot seeder was used, because the turf was not too dense.
For other meadows a pre-treatment was necessary, as shown in the second picture. Due to a very dense turf, and a strong growth of the previous grassland vegetation, it must be destroyed before the seeding. The first step was to use a cultivator, in the second step a reverse tiller, combined with a seeder, was used to put the old turf upside down and to bring up the bare soil. During this step, the combined seeder brought the seeding material into the soil.
We've also designed Information boards which are distributed among the farmers to be installed nearby or on their Framework project meadows, where biodiversity-friendly management measures were applied.
The aim of those boards is to inform the wider public (neighbours, passers-by, consumers, other farmers etc) about what is happening on those meadows, the reason why the grass sometimes looks different and about the project and its goals. Several farmers have already installed the boards, the rest will follow next year.
A balanced circular economy and environmentally friendly cultivation of their fields is very important to the farmers in the Mostviertel Cluster. Therefore, they try very hard to do as much as possible for biodiversity, as can be seen from the seeding of species-rich meadow mixtures.
Of course, it is then also important to draw the public's attention to the achievements of the farmers, which is made possible with our information boards. This should also increase public understanding of agricultural measures.
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