According to a recent survey at least nine out of ten farmers see forage and better use of grass silage as playing central roles in the future of their businesses.

Ben Wixey, national agricultural sales manager for forage experts Germinal GB, 98 per cent of the 560 UK livestock farmers that took part in the 2016 Forage Use Survey ranked forage as a highly important factor in their long-term plans.

Also, two-thirds of respondents said they were actively striving to do a better job with forage management.

Despite these very clear statements of intent, the rate of reseeding grassland is, on average, well below that required to maintain swards in anything close to maximum productivity.

Ben said: "Only one in five of the livestock farmers taking part in the survey stated they were reseeding more than 10% of their grassland each year, and almost half were reseeding less than 5% each year.

"This clearly points to significant lost potential, but more importantly a great opportunity for the industry to do better.”

Derek Nelson, product manager for animal nutrition and silage experts, said: "Clearly, producing good grass and good silage makes a lot of sense for improving farm business sustainability.

“But if farmers are to genuinely increase milk production from home-grown forage and reduce bought-in feed use, it will be essential to address these shortcomings.

“More than 80 per cent of dairy farmers in the survey were looking to reduce bought-in feed costs. However UK silage quality does not seem to be improving.

“Similarly, nearly 80 per cent of dairy farmers in the survey were wilting for 24 hours or longer. But the objective should be to wilt as quickly as possible to 28 - 32 per cent dry matter, which may take less than 24 hours. The longer you wilt, the more vital sugars are lost.

“Reseeding more regularly will ensure more of the grass being harvested will be the original sown species, as opposed to weed species, so there will be a tangible increase in the value of the crop.

“Even assuming quite modest increases in dry matter and D-value, the extra performance achievable from the higher quality forage will often pay for the reseed in the first year.”