Grass 10 is the name of a new campaign to promote grazed grass as the best feed for dairy, beef and sheep farmers. The number 10 refers to the fact that the target should be to graze each paddock on your farm 10 times during the year and utilise 10t of grass dry matter per ha per year.

These targets effectively mean the target for grassland paddocks must be to grow 13t of grass DM/ha/year. Then it is up to sheep, cattle or dairy cows to eat almost 80% of the amount grown and convert it into meat or milk protein, thus utilising 10t/ha.

On average across Irish farms, the current average amount of grass grown is down around 7t of dry matter per ha. However, many well-fertilised farms are averaging well above 12t of grass grown once soil fertility, drainage and grass species are improved.

Over 100 industry guests attended the launch of the Grass 10 campaign which also coincided with the relaunch of the PastureBase Ireland online service. The new Grass 10 campaign is scheduled to run for four years from 2017 to 2020.

PastureBase Ireland is an online grassland measurement database where farmers can input grass covers and calculate growth rates and targets for management purposes. The relaunch of PastureBase Ireland has come about as the Teagasc developed software package has merged with Agrinet. Existing Agrinet grass measuring clients will be transferred to PastureBase Ireland over the coming months.

Milk records

It is expected that milk records from processors will be available on PastureBase Ireland by July of this year.

Minister Michael Creed attended the launch and welcomed the launch of these two initiatives that are part of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s 2017 Year of Sustainable Grassland. Other speakers included representatives from Teagasc, Grassland Agro, AIB, Irish Farmers Journal and the FBD Trust.