Ground conditions are better than usual at this time of year.
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Widespread heavy rain this week has put a dampener on grazing ambitions in the short term. Grass+ returns this week with a lowdown of grass growth rates from across the country. Average farm covers are higher than normal and rainfall over the last two months was generally lower than usual, so ground conditions are better than we normally expect at this time of year.
That said, we don’t need much rain to make land wet, especially on these short days. Most farmers on reasonable to good land should be able to get cows out for a few hours a day for most days in February. The advantages are huge, in terms of cow performance and extra grass growth over the year and better-quality grass.
The important thing to remember is that soon after calving the cow’s feed intake is very low at only around 8kg in total. The most common mistake most farmers make is to allocate too much grass to the freshly calved cows. If you are feeding 2kg of meal, this means that the cows will only eat 3kg of grass dry matter per grazing. Intakes increase by about 1kg per cow per week up until about 17 or 18kg after eight or nine weeks.
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Widespread heavy rain this week has put a dampener on grazing ambitions in the short term. Grass+ returns this week with a lowdown of grass growth rates from across the country. Average farm covers are higher than normal and rainfall over the last two months was generally lower than usual, so ground conditions are better than we normally expect at this time of year.
That said, we don’t need much rain to make land wet, especially on these short days. Most farmers on reasonable to good land should be able to get cows out for a few hours a day for most days in February. The advantages are huge, in terms of cow performance and extra grass growth over the year and better-quality grass.
The important thing to remember is that soon after calving the cow’s feed intake is very low at only around 8kg in total. The most common mistake most farmers make is to allocate too much grass to the freshly calved cows. If you are feeding 2kg of meal, this means that the cows will only eat 3kg of grass dry matter per grazing. Intakes increase by about 1kg per cow per week up until about 17 or 18kg after eight or nine weeks.
If you would like to speak to a member of our team, please call us on 01-4199525.
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