The benefits of some recent changes to grassland management were made clear by Jonathan Blair during a walk on his farm near Ballykelly on Thursday evening.

“Paddock grazing has been a revelation. When you start using it you wouldn’t dream of going any other way,” he told around 100 farmers in attendance.

“People say that I must be sowing more fertiliser because grass is coming back quicker after grazing, but I’m not. I’ve sown around three and half bags an acre this season, plus half a bag of urea in March,” the suckler beef and tillage farmer said.

Cattle soon get used to human contact and move easily into the next paddock after three or four days of grazing

Jonathan said that setting up paddocks has allowed better utilisation of grass by grazing and allowed more surplus grass to be taken out for bales.

This in turn has lead to better re-growth and sward quality.

“Cattle soon get used to human contact and move easily into the next paddock after three or four days of grazing,” he said.

Measuring

The other change to grassland management that Jonathan has made since starting the Better Farm Beef Challenge NI programme in spring 2017 is weekly grass measuring.

He told farmers that it allows him to identify underperforming paddocks in need of reseeding and lets him know much feed he has in front of stock. Management decisions with baling surplus grass or bringing more ground into the grazing round are based on this information.

“I usually go measuring on a Friday or Saturday morning. It was a matter of training myself to make sure I do it each week so that I don’t get side tracked and forgot about it,” he said.

Read more on the Better Farm Beef Challenge NI here and each week in the NI edition of the Irish Farmers Journal.