A practical, on-farm workshop on managing grazing during increasing UK droughts — with international grazing expert John Bailey, PâtureSens

About this event

As summers grow hotter and drier, grass growth in mid-summer can no longer be relied on the way it once was. This year’s drought conditions have already forced many farmers across the UK to dip into winter forage reserves months early — a pattern now repeating almost annually.

This one-day, on-farm event brings together a practical workshop and a farm walk to explore how summer-dry grazing systems can help safeguard livestock production, protect soil and biodiversity, and reduce reliance on bought-in feed — building resilience into the grazing platform itself.

Join Pasture for Life and expert grazing consultant John Bailey (PâtureSens) for a day of hands-on learning, on-farm application, and open discussion with fellow farmers.

What you’ll learn

• How to design long-rotation grazing systems for moisture-deficit summers (rotations from 17 to 120+ days)
• Simple, reliable methods to avoid overgrazing and protect root reserves and animal production
• How grazing management affects internal parasite risk
• Practical subdivision layouts and calculation methods you can apply on your own ground
• How these techniques support soil water-holding capacity, sward diversity and long-term drought resilience
• How to avoid exhausting your winter fodder supply before the summer is even over

About the speaker: John Bailey

John Bailey is a retired stock manager, shepherd and consultant with nearly five decades of grazing management experience across Scotland, the French Pyrenees and Alps, and New Zealand.

He founded the grazing consultancy PâtureSens in 2008, and has worked closely for many years with respected New Zealand vet Trevor Cook.

John studies each farm’s situation in advance of a visit and leaves participants with practical fact sheets to take away.

About the host farm (Tŷ Mawr)

Dan & Ellie Smith

We have been farming in Monmouthshire since 2017, after many years in the Cotswolds. Alongside our two young children, we are building a regenerative future at Ty Mawr, where we have established Roots In, a farming and consultancy business that blends innovation, education, and community engagement.

Roots In now serves as a platform for supporting others on similar journeys, offering mentorship, opportunity, and space that integrates technical farming knowledge with human-centred approaches. We are both committed to welcoming innovative ideas and empowering new entrants into the industry. Current enterprises at Ty Mawr include Wildfarmed arable, pedigree beef and sheep, a cut flower garden, a market garden, beekeeping, and wood turning, while future developments such as a farm shop, agroforestry, wetland creation, and regenerative equine livery are already on the horizon. These enterprises run alongside considerable environmental improvements, reflecting our commitment to resilience, inclusivity, and regeneration. We have held several engagement days to explore their approach with other organisations.

The consultancy allows us to scale our approach by assisting in all aspects of regenerative farming from farm design, recruitment and management to social projects and technical assistance. Projects include several private farms, Landscape Recovery Schemes, Pasture for Life and National Landscapes.

Dan is a director of the Oxford Farming Conference

www.rootsin.co.uk

Who should attend

Farmers and land managers — particularly those managing grazing livestock who want to build resilience into their system ahead of future dry summers.

Open to PfL members and non-members.

To book your space please click the following link: Out in the Drought WALES: Protecting Production with Summer-Dry Grazing Tickets, Thursday, September 10  •  10 AM – 3 PM | Eventbrite