Improving Pasture Bio-diverstiy for Gut Health with Matthew Dodds via Zoom

Matthew Dodds is currently the planning and biodiversity manager for the North Herts and Middlesx wildlife trust where he engages with the wider community to influence policy and positive outcomes for biodiversity. During his career he has surveyed, transformed and restored many valuable wild flower meadows throughout the Aylesbury Vale district and beyond.

Matthew’s presentation will cover the practicalities involved with turning pastures from agricultural to species rich diverse spaces; the by product being better gastrointestinal health for our horses and associated health benefits. This will include how we can increase species diversity into paddocks and pastures, and information on time frames for restoring a natural swathe, depending on pasture type and explain the differences between pastures depending on location and topography.

Matthew will be providing information on how we can increase species diversity in both large and smaller scale projects, detailing maintenance regimes, weed removal, cutting and grazing cycles and the benefits of these management processes. All of this information is tied with the evolution and ecology of the plant species used in wild flower meadows.

We will also provide some discussion on suitable species mixes and the plants that would be of most benefit to the above situations.

There will be time for some questions at the end.