Managing Grassland and maintaining diversity

The first 200 words of this essay...

Managing Grassland and maintaining diversity

Grassland is found in many areas, such as agricultural lands were a farmer would use it to graze animals or us it for other reasons. Grass land is also found at playing fields and many gardens. Maintaining grassland can include mowing, grazing and even burning, however burning is rarely used.

Mowing

Mowing is an unselective may of controlling the growth of the plants that are cut by the machine. If cutting is done with a scythe then the heights will not be the same leading to unevenness, this unevenness can provide good habitats for invertebrates or ground nesting birds but the plant growth will not be similar.

The cut plant can be used for silage or hay, the removal of the plant means that nutrients have been taken out of the soil; however this can be replaced easily by fertilisers and other chemicals. If mowings are left on the ground they can prevent other plant seeds from reaching the ground and germinating.

Grass grown for silage consist of high yielding varieties and is usually aided with fertilises to maximise the crop yield. Mowing for silage