I received some positive and negative comments regarding my last article about autumn grass budgeting leading to early spring grass. I’d love to wallow with pride in the praise, but the negative is far more interesting.

Comments centred around me being lucky to be able to graze early in the spring, lucky to be in dairying, lucky to have roadways, enough quota left, help available.

I have heard various opinions as to what percentage of farm incomes are controlled by weather, the prices of products and inputs, and of course luck. The most I’ve heard is 90%, not leaving much in the farmer’s own control.

For the record, I know how lucky I am to have a dry farm on the south coast of Ireland with practically no frost, it allows me to plan a 300 day grazing season. The key here is that I have planned 300 days. If I don’t plan turnout until mid-March, by not having enough spring grass I cannot make use of “lucky” fine weather in February. Planning to be ready to make use of a lucky break increases potential control of my income.

Hard work

I’m lucky to have a farm with potential to grow a lot of grass. My land isn’t perfect but previous generations cleared furze, bulldozed and covered rocks. The soil is good through management and fertilizers.

Management includes tilling and avoiding compaction by investing in roadways and buildings. Some of it is steep so I drive a 4-wheel drive tractor. None of this is luck, it is farming.

I know wet land and northern farms have more of a challenge for early spring grazing. I also know it is good practice to keep animals out as long as possible in autumn. However, grazing every blade of autumn grass to save silage or in case the spring is wet is a false economy.

Teagasc research says that for each extra day re-grazing paddocks after 10 October, it restricts spring growth by 6kg dm/acre/day. That might not sound much, but that 6kg is the spring grass intake of a fresh calved cow. Then consider that each extra day grazing in the spring is worth €2.70/cow/day.

Circumstances

The fact I am a dairy farmer isn’t luck, it is a decision based on my circumstances. To suggest that it wouldn’t be as important on a beef farm with its lower margins is to say extra feed for free isn’t important. Can anyone afford to say a 500kg bale of 65DMD silage will do if 800kg of 80DMD is the same price?

Read back Harold’s previous article on planning for spring grazing here.