Growing a mix of plants in fields can save farmers money and help the environment – new research

By Caroline Brophy, Professor in Statistics, Trinity College Dublin

Farmers have increasingly sown a single type of grass in their fields over the past 100 years, and then added chemical fertiliser to increase their harvest. But new research suggests that there are alternatives that are cheaper and can increase the potential of these grasslands to feed livestock.

My research team and I were particularly interested in the potential of mixing up the species of plants grown in agricultural grasslands and what the benefits might be.

This meant the sowing of two grasses, two legumes (for instance, red clover and white clover) and two herbs…

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