Tailor this plan to your farm and try to push the boundaries a little. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The aim on dry farms is to have 40% of the grazing area grazed by 10 March and 100% grazed by 1 April. This changes to 20 March and 10 April on wetter farms.

Don’t use the silage pit as the gauge to let cattle out and if silage is left over it will keep and may be needed later in spring if weather turns really bad. Getting some fields grazed early will allow for slurry to be spread and also stimulate some growth. Urea should be in the yard at this stage, ready to be spread at the rate of half a bag per acre once the weather improves. Don’t spread urea on land that recently got slurry or on land that is to get lime this spring.

Read more

ADVERTISEMENT

Grass+: Mercury rising but rain a pain

Beef managment: dirty cattle

Beef managment: calving records