Grazing is going according to plan, on paper at least. My target of one third grazed will be achieved on 1 March.

Conditions have been a little challenging with the perfect weather at the start of February turning messy now. I am back-fencing each day to limit poaching which is working very well. On the few bad days, the gap is left open as I find less damage to have them standing in the collecting yard than huddled behind a wire.

The intention, due to cubicle spaces, was splitting the herd into autumn and spring milkers with the spring ladies out fulltime. The cold, wet ground hasn’t encouraged me to evening grazing yet. The wet ground has also currently halted slurry spreading post grazing. It is a shame as there is a very definite dark green benefit to be seen where it has been spread.

The next part of the grazing plan is to allocate another third of the milking platform by St. Patrick’s Day. This weekend’s forecasted gales mean making use of the roof by night for another few days at least.

Current pre-grazing covers are averaging 2,000kg DM/Ha which is being cleaned nicely to around 100kg. The rest of those high covers will now be skipped in favour of 1,300kg as the area I need to graze increases. It is easy to go back again as soon as night grazing starts.

My original target of finishing the first round on 28 March will be reassessed mid-month depending on growth rates. To have 1,500kg on my first paddock by then would need an average of 25kg DM/Ha/day since turn-out on 1 February, but I am only hearing single figures on all reports. To me, that really shows the importance of starting early to give as much time as possible for the first paddocks to be ready again.

The difference with having autumn calvers here over only spring calvers is that they are at peak appetite. It makes it easier to be ahead of target than to hit targets. I don’t worry about a grass shortage at the start of April, it means the farm is set up for a quality second round. Anyway, one silo is still half full and there are nearly 100 bales left so there is no fodder shortage. It is as easy to feed that in April as February.