From turnout through to August, the focus is on grazing swards down tight while at the same time not allowing pre-grazing covers to get too strong. However, the focus changes from August onwards.
While you should still try and graze swards down tight (4cm to 5cm, depending on ground conditions), your target during late August and September is to try and allow pre-grazing covers to increase in a bid to build a bank of grass that can be used to carry stock through until late October or early November. On dry farms with light yearlings, the grazing season can be extended into December.
It is possible to build up a bank of grass over the next five to six weeks without affecting sward quality. During the first half of the grazing season, your goal was to keep pre-grazing covers (e.g. the height at which you were moving in and grazing swards) to a maximum of 10cm. The reason for this was to prevent the leaves at the bottom of the sward dying away and the quality of the sward declining. This process of sward decay is often referred to as senescence.
The rate at which senescence occurs in the sward slows down dramatically in the second half of the grazing season. Therefore, you can allow pre-grazing covers to increase to around 2,300kg/DM/ha (12cm to 14cm) without having any significant effect on sward quality and animal performance.
From August onwards, sward with a high content of clover will maintain quality levels for up to 45 days. The consequences of failing to take the necessary steps to build up a bank of grass by the end of September quickly become evident in October:
Autumn calving cows with no milk.Housing of stock that were initially earmarked for slaughter off grass.Spring-born calves 15kg to 20kg behind target at housing or autumn sales.
Increased meal feeding to compensate for restricted grass supply.Bare paddocks and stock being allowed to roam over grazing ground.Cheap grass being replaced with ringfeeder and expensive silage.Housing taking place two to three weeks earlier than required.The end result of all of the above is lower levels of farm output and higher production costs - a dangerous combination when it comes to trying to make a profit.
For example, where a farmer running a herd of 40 autumn calving suckler cows is forced to house two weeks earlier than normal, the increase in feed costs alone in the in the region of €700. In the case where a farmer running a batch of 50 store cattle misses out on an additional 15kg to 20kg of gain from grass during the autumn, the financial implications are in the region of €1,500.
While weather conditions will have a major bearing on grass growth and ground conditions, there are still a number of steps that can be taken to ensure high levels of animal performance are maintained from August through to housing or sale.
1. APPLY NITROGEN Under the Nitrates Directive, the deadline for nitrogen application is 15 September. It is difficult to give prescriptive advice on the merits of spreading N in the autumn, mainly because the economic response you get will depend on sward quality and stocking rate.
When you have old permanent pasture with a low content of perennial ryegrass, the response to applying additional N in the autumn will be low. However, where you have freshly reseeded swards with a high content of perennial ryegrasses, the response per additional kilo of N can be as high as 15kg/DM/ha, which even at current N prices will be deliver an economic return.
On low stocked farms, the economic merits of spreading autumn N are questionable - there is no point spending extra money to grow additional grass if you do not have the stock on the farm to graze it. This is especially applicable to farmers with spring calving herds that will be selling progeny in early October.
As a general rule of thumb, heavily stocked farms that are going to have a rising herd demand going into the autumn should consider blanket spreading the grazing area with 20 to 25 units of N per acre before the Nitrates deadline.
Urea can be used during periods of wet weather. The only paddocks that should receive no N are those with high clover content. Farmers with a lower stocking rate and operation on a more marginal land type can target spread to some of the better quality swards on the farm if they are confident that they can utilise the extra grass. This will often be a factor of land type and stocking rate.
Where slurry is available on the farm, this should be targeted on fields that have been shown to be low in P&K.
2. CREEP GRAZE One way to start building grass supplies is to reduce demand. There should be no need to adjust demand on lower stocked farms. However, heavily stocked farms operating a range of production systems can take a number of steps to help reduce demand without affecting animal performance.
For example, in a spring calving herd, it can be difficult to build up a grass bank as herd demand is increasing as calves start consuming more grass.
You have two options - firstly, the rotation can be slowed down by allowing the calves to creep graze ahead of the cows. This allows you to provide the calves with a continuous supply of good quality grass, while at the same time holding the cows for an extra few days before moving them on - creep grazing is the key to maintaining performance levels in a spring calving herd.
3. WEAN JANUARY/FEBRUARY BORN CALVES Another option is to wean early January/February born calves and remove the dry cows from the rotation - some farms will close the dry cows onto a bare paddock or, where available, move them onto a fodder crop.
On mixed farms, there is also the option of allowing them to graze barley stubbles. It is essential that farmers with late summer/autumn calving cows take the necessary steps to ensure they have an adequate supply of good quality grass into the autumn, especially where the breeding season starts prior to housing.
At this stage, dry autumn calving cows should be removed from the grazing block and either fed indoors or closed onto rough ground or a bare paddock.
4. HOUSED FORWARD BULLS Farmers operating a spring calving suckler to bull beef system are in an ideal position to reduce herd demand and build up additional grass. The rules with bulls are quite simple - they don’t do hardship and need a full belly every day - otherwise, they become unsettled and performance levels decline rapidly.
It is on this basis that I advise farmers that, from mid-July onward, bulls should be house as they come to between 16 and 17 months of age. This not only ensure that the beef bulls do not receive any setback but also allows farmers to start and build covers from mid-August.
The early housing of forward bulls also suits farmers operating a trading system as they can build up a grass bank that can be used to graze weanling for eight to ten weeks after purchase. On dry farms, weanling will often be held out on grass until the first run of beef bulls are sold in December.
5. WRAP UP THE SILAGE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER You should plan to have the silage season wrapped up in the next two weeks. Harvesting silage in mid-September will only leave you tight for grass in October and these swards will not have had time to recover. By cutting silage in late September, all you are effectively doing is going to the added expense of conserving grass that you could have grazed.
6. INTRODUCE MEALS TO FINISHING CATTLE Having a planned feeding regime is critical to ensuring you maintain high levels of performance during the autumn. At this stage, you should have clearly identified animals that are going to be slaughtered off grass and those that you either intend to house or sells as stores. Both groups should be grazed separately.
Animals that are earmarked for slaughter within the next eight weeks should be moved onto 2kg to 3kg of meal, even where good quality grass is available. This will help improve killout percentage and improve conformation grades for borderline cases.
It will also improve fat cover and can pull slaughter date forward by 10 to 14 days.
Moving these animals off the grazing block two weeks earlier will reduce herd demand when growth is low and can also allow you to capture a higher beef price.
All you are looking for is a high energy mix with 10% protein and no minerals - in most cases, straight rolled barley is adequate.
7. HOUSE FORWARD STEERS EARLY Provided weather conditions are favourable and ground conditions remain satisfactory forward steers (580kg plus) will continue to achieve good levels of performance from grazed grass through until late September.
However, as soon as conditions deteriorate, these animals should be removed from the grazing block and either housed or sold.
Not only will performance levels on these forward animals decline but grass utilisation will be poor.
You will get much better utilisation by grazing these sward with lighter stock.
8. DON’T ROLL OUT THE RING FEEDER Ring feeders and silage trailers should be barred from entering a grass field in the autumn - other than to feed a bit of hay or straw for magnesium purposes.
For some reason, some farmers can see merit in holding stock out around a ring feeder eating silage while at the same time ploughing bare paddocks. This, by the way, in not extending grazing.
Stock should be housed when the grass is gone. Another tactic that some farmers use to ‘extend the grazing season’ is to open up all the gates and allow stock roam over the entire grazing block. This should be avoided at all costs.
It will do nothing to increase animal performance at grass and will drive up feed costs by delaying turnout next spring. Again, housing should take place when the rotation is complete and grass is gone.
9. CLOSE PADDOCKS IN ROTATION The most critical part of autumn grassland is management is probably closing up the farm in rotation to ensure you have adequate spring grass. Remember, in relation to animal performance, one day in the spring is worth two days in the autumn. Using the 60:40 autumn rotation planner will ensure you have the farm set up right for next spring.
The plan for heavy farms to start closing up paddocks in rotation from early October onwards, with 60% of the grazing area closed by late October and 100% closed by mid-November. On dry farms, the first paddocks should be closed up in mid-October with 60% closed up by early/mid-November and the 100% closed by early December.
Figure 1 gives a rough guide. The secret to ensuring the planner is a success is not to go in and re-graze paddocks that were closed up at the start of the rotation.
10. ADOPT A COMMON SENSE APPROACH
The key to making the most of the grassland management is to adopt a commonsense approach and adapt any advice to suit the specifics of your farm. While planning is important, common sense is critical.
Irrespective of your land type, stocking rate and farming system, there are a number of basics:
A light animal will do less damage to swards than a 600kg finishing animal.You will alway have high and low priority stock on the farm. High priority stock should get the best grass.Decisions should be taken based on the seffet to the overall farm and not individual groups.If you are damaging swards, house stock.Wet ground should be targeted for grazing during dry spells.Don’t force stock to graze down to 4cm where ground conditions are poor.Housing should be on a phased basis - all stock do not have to be housed on the one day.There is no point in applying additional N if you don’t have the stock to graze the grass.*This article was first published by the Irish Farmers Journal on 27th August 2011.
From turnout through to August, the focus is on grazing swards down tight while at the same time not allowing pre-grazing covers to get too strong. However, the focus changes from August onwards.
While you should still try and graze swards down tight (4cm to 5cm, depending on ground conditions), your target during late August and September is to try and allow pre-grazing covers to increase in a bid to build a bank of grass that can be used to carry stock through until late October or early November. On dry farms with light yearlings, the grazing season can be extended into December.
It is possible to build up a bank of grass over the next five to six weeks without affecting sward quality. During the first half of the grazing season, your goal was to keep pre-grazing covers (e.g. the height at which you were moving in and grazing swards) to a maximum of 10cm. The reason for this was to prevent the leaves at the bottom of the sward dying away and the quality of the sward declining. This process of sward decay is often referred to as senescence.
The rate at which senescence occurs in the sward slows down dramatically in the second half of the grazing season. Therefore, you can allow pre-grazing covers to increase to around 2,300kg/DM/ha (12cm to 14cm) without having any significant effect on sward quality and animal performance.
From August onwards, sward with a high content of clover will maintain quality levels for up to 45 days. The consequences of failing to take the necessary steps to build up a bank of grass by the end of September quickly become evident in October:
Autumn calving cows with no milk.Housing of stock that were initially earmarked for slaughter off grass.Spring-born calves 15kg to 20kg behind target at housing or autumn sales.Increased meal feeding to compensate for restricted grass supply.Bare paddocks and stock being allowed to roam over grazing ground.Cheap grass being replaced with ringfeeder and expensive silage.Housing taking place two to three weeks earlier than required.The end result of all of the above is lower levels of farm output and higher production costs - a dangerous combination when it comes to trying to make a profit.
For example, where a farmer running a herd of 40 autumn calving suckler cows is forced to house two weeks earlier than normal, the increase in feed costs alone in the in the region of €700. In the case where a farmer running a batch of 50 store cattle misses out on an additional 15kg to 20kg of gain from grass during the autumn, the financial implications are in the region of €1,500.
While weather conditions will have a major bearing on grass growth and ground conditions, there are still a number of steps that can be taken to ensure high levels of animal performance are maintained from August through to housing or sale.
1. APPLY NITROGEN Under the Nitrates Directive, the deadline for nitrogen application is 15 September. It is difficult to give prescriptive advice on the merits of spreading N in the autumn, mainly because the economic response you get will depend on sward quality and stocking rate.
When you have old permanent pasture with a low content of perennial ryegrass, the response to applying additional N in the autumn will be low. However, where you have freshly reseeded swards with a high content of perennial ryegrasses, the response per additional kilo of N can be as high as 15kg/DM/ha, which even at current N prices will be deliver an economic return.
On low stocked farms, the economic merits of spreading autumn N are questionable - there is no point spending extra money to grow additional grass if you do not have the stock on the farm to graze it. This is especially applicable to farmers with spring calving herds that will be selling progeny in early October.
As a general rule of thumb, heavily stocked farms that are going to have a rising herd demand going into the autumn should consider blanket spreading the grazing area with 20 to 25 units of N per acre before the Nitrates deadline.
Urea can be used during periods of wet weather. The only paddocks that should receive no N are those with high clover content. Farmers with a lower stocking rate and operation on a more marginal land type can target spread to some of the better quality swards on the farm if they are confident that they can utilise the extra grass. This will often be a factor of land type and stocking rate.
Where slurry is available on the farm, this should be targeted on fields that have been shown to be low in P&K.
2. CREEP GRAZE One way to start building grass supplies is to reduce demand. There should be no need to adjust demand on lower stocked farms. However, heavily stocked farms operating a range of production systems can take a number of steps to help reduce demand without affecting animal performance.
For example, in a spring calving herd, it can be difficult to build up a grass bank as herd demand is increasing as calves start consuming more grass.
You have two options - firstly, the rotation can be slowed down by allowing the calves to creep graze ahead of the cows. This allows you to provide the calves with a continuous supply of good quality grass, while at the same time holding the cows for an extra few days before moving them on - creep grazing is the key to maintaining performance levels in a spring calving herd.
3. WEAN JANUARY/FEBRUARY BORN CALVES Another option is to wean early January/February born calves and remove the dry cows from the rotation - some farms will close the dry cows onto a bare paddock or, where available, move them onto a fodder crop.
On mixed farms, there is also the option of allowing them to graze barley stubbles. It is essential that farmers with late summer/autumn calving cows take the necessary steps to ensure they have an adequate supply of good quality grass into the autumn, especially where the breeding season starts prior to housing.
At this stage, dry autumn calving cows should be removed from the grazing block and either fed indoors or closed onto rough ground or a bare paddock.
4. HOUSED FORWARD BULLS Farmers operating a spring calving suckler to bull beef system are in an ideal position to reduce herd demand and build up additional grass. The rules with bulls are quite simple - they don’t do hardship and need a full belly every day - otherwise, they become unsettled and performance levels decline rapidly.
It is on this basis that I advise farmers that, from mid-July onward, bulls should be house as they come to between 16 and 17 months of age. This not only ensure that the beef bulls do not receive any setback but also allows farmers to start and build covers from mid-August.
The early housing of forward bulls also suits farmers operating a trading system as they can build up a grass bank that can be used to graze weanling for eight to ten weeks after purchase. On dry farms, weanling will often be held out on grass until the first run of beef bulls are sold in December.
5. WRAP UP THE SILAGE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER You should plan to have the silage season wrapped up in the next two weeks. Harvesting silage in mid-September will only leave you tight for grass in October and these swards will not have had time to recover. By cutting silage in late September, all you are effectively doing is going to the added expense of conserving grass that you could have grazed.
6. INTRODUCE MEALS TO FINISHING CATTLE Having a planned feeding regime is critical to ensuring you maintain high levels of performance during the autumn. At this stage, you should have clearly identified animals that are going to be slaughtered off grass and those that you either intend to house or sells as stores. Both groups should be grazed separately.
Animals that are earmarked for slaughter within the next eight weeks should be moved onto 2kg to 3kg of meal, even where good quality grass is available. This will help improve killout percentage and improve conformation grades for borderline cases.
It will also improve fat cover and can pull slaughter date forward by 10 to 14 days.
Moving these animals off the grazing block two weeks earlier will reduce herd demand when growth is low and can also allow you to capture a higher beef price.
All you are looking for is a high energy mix with 10% protein and no minerals - in most cases, straight rolled barley is adequate.
7. HOUSE FORWARD STEERS EARLY Provided weather conditions are favourable and ground conditions remain satisfactory forward steers (580kg plus) will continue to achieve good levels of performance from grazed grass through until late September.
However, as soon as conditions deteriorate, these animals should be removed from the grazing block and either housed or sold.
Not only will performance levels on these forward animals decline but grass utilisation will be poor.
You will get much better utilisation by grazing these sward with lighter stock.
8. DON’T ROLL OUT THE RING FEEDER Ring feeders and silage trailers should be barred from entering a grass field in the autumn - other than to feed a bit of hay or straw for magnesium purposes.
For some reason, some farmers can see merit in holding stock out around a ring feeder eating silage while at the same time ploughing bare paddocks. This, by the way, in not extending grazing.
Stock should be housed when the grass is gone. Another tactic that some farmers use to ‘extend the grazing season’ is to open up all the gates and allow stock roam over the entire grazing block. This should be avoided at all costs.
It will do nothing to increase animal performance at grass and will drive up feed costs by delaying turnout next spring. Again, housing should take place when the rotation is complete and grass is gone.
9. CLOSE PADDOCKS IN ROTATION The most critical part of autumn grassland is management is probably closing up the farm in rotation to ensure you have adequate spring grass. Remember, in relation to animal performance, one day in the spring is worth two days in the autumn. Using the 60:40 autumn rotation planner will ensure you have the farm set up right for next spring.
The plan for heavy farms to start closing up paddocks in rotation from early October onwards, with 60% of the grazing area closed by late October and 100% closed by mid-November. On dry farms, the first paddocks should be closed up in mid-October with 60% closed up by early/mid-November and the 100% closed by early December.
Figure 1 gives a rough guide. The secret to ensuring the planner is a success is not to go in and re-graze paddocks that were closed up at the start of the rotation.
10. ADOPT A COMMON SENSE APPROACH
The key to making the most of the grassland management is to adopt a commonsense approach and adapt any advice to suit the specifics of your farm. While planning is important, common sense is critical.
Irrespective of your land type, stocking rate and farming system, there are a number of basics:
A light animal will do less damage to swards than a 600kg finishing animal.You will alway have high and low priority stock on the farm. High priority stock should get the best grass.Decisions should be taken based on the seffet to the overall farm and not individual groups.If you are damaging swards, house stock.Wet ground should be targeted for grazing during dry spells.Don’t force stock to graze down to 4cm where ground conditions are poor.Housing should be on a phased basis - all stock do not have to be housed on the one day.There is no point in applying additional N if you don’t have the stock to graze the grass.*This article was first published by the Irish Farmers Journal on 27th August 2011.
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