SUPER-G Benchmarking performance on commercial farms (task 3.1)

The SUPER-G project aimed to co-develop sustainable Permanent Grassland (PG) systems and policies with farmers and policy makers to effectively optimise productivity whist supporting biodiversity and delivering other Ecosystem Services (ES). This was achieved through the completion of a series of Work Packages (WP). Work Package 3 aimed to benchmark performance in terms of profitability and sustainability and the delivery of ES. This was achieved in part through deliverable (D) D3.2, where an “Overview of data, key gaps, and trends in PG management in the different biogeographic regions” was compiled. This overview included a survey of 352 farms across six biogeographic regions conducted in 2019, which explored on-farm management and differences between regions. A second, subsequent, survey was undertaken in 2023, which included 203 of the original farms from five biogeographic areas. Deliverable report 3.3. describes the distribution of key indicators from farms surveyed in the first survey and describes any changes which were captured in the second survey. Agri-environment indicators and key sustainability indicators were identified in WP2 and include forage efficiency, grass utilisation (the proportion of grass dry matter grown that is consumed by livestock) and grass/clover dry matter (DM) productivity. Due to the limitations of how many questions can be asked in a survey and the time required to perform a survey, it was not possible to calculate all these metrics. This report examines the sustainability indicators of stocking density, grass production and output per hectare and environmental indicators of areas reserved for nature and biodiversity.

The data files include the survey questions, responses from 2021 survey, responses from 2023 survey and a blank survey form.