Getting cattle out of the shed mid-February to take advantage of early grass is the one truly good opportunity we beef farmers have at improving our efficiency and reducing costs.

Not only will cattle thrive much better outdoors, but we save on feeding, slurry storage, labour time and other costs incurred while in the shed.

A top-class dairy farmer we visited while in the BETTER farm programme suggested we need to “wake up the grass” in the spring by grazing it early, even at low covers.

It was great advice and I’ve benefited from the results ever since. Last year, I produced in excess of 15t DM/ha.

Reduce poaching

Getting cattle out to grass this early in the spring is not always possible on heavy ground and it’s certainly not for the fainthearted, with changeable weather and soft ground massive challenges.

However, once poaching is not severe and limited to surface damage, it will recover quickly.

Block grazing, in my opinion, will also minimise this risk of damage.

Most farmers, although not all, are fortunate to have some dry ground on their farm. Therefore, their goal should be to get light stock out on the driest ground if at all possible, which has always been my approach.

I am not a big believer in letting cattle in and out in wet weather conditions. I think it unsettles them and results in a poor thrive. I will not be putting any of my heavy cattle out until I know that when they go out, there is a good chance that they will stay out.

So, at this moment, this brave heart is thinking the weather forecast is not too bad for the coming week.

My herd test is just completed, so all light stock will be back to grass on my driest ground with the lowest covers this week.

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