The scorching weather over the last few days has led to a sudden burst in grass growth. Farmers need to be proactive to keep on top of the growth, writes Aidan Brennan.

Weather conditions are ideal for grass growth. Farms are like glasshouses at the moment, with plenty of moisture, heat and light. After a slight dip in growth rates last week, I would expect that growth is now above 100kg a day, on average, across farms.

While this is good to see, it needs to be managed. Many farms went out of hand after the last big burst of growth two weeks ago. It’s important to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Walk the farm twice a week. Even if you do not measure, assess the grass cover and quality on each field. If measuring, set grass cover at around 150kg to 180kg per cow. This means most farmers will have to skip over paddocks.

With the forecast good for the next few days, try to get these paddocks cut and back growing again before the rain at the weekend.

Short burst

Unlike the first burst in growth, this growth spurt will not last as long. Of course, it all depends on what the weather does for the next few weeks and how much fertiliser has been spread, but I would think that growth will probably settle in the 70s per day for the next few weeks.

This means that demand shouldn’t be set too high. It’s better to be developing surplus grass more regularly than to be stocked very highly and risk running out of grass because the surplus paddocks weren’t cut when you had the chance.

Keep in mind that cutting or topping a high proportion of the farm will lower grass growth rates. Cut paddocks are slower to recover than grazed paddocks, so this could reduce growth rates considerably if, for example, every paddock grazed this week was topped and if a few paddocks were cut for silage too.

This is an important consideration when predicting growth rates for next week.

Stem

Many fields are now gone stemmy, particularly those that have not been cut yet this year. While they might look bad-quality from a distance, they need to be walked through to get a real sense of their quality.

Oftentimes, it is just the dungpads that are stemmy, with the grass in between being excellent quality. If the fields had been topped the last time, they would look better, but the quality of the grass being grazed by the cow would be no better.

With so much work happening on farms and with such good weather, it is easy to become complacent. Primary school children are getting holidays this week too. Keep farm safety front and centre of your mind at all times.

Read more

Greenfield update: changing milk liners and increasing growth

Watch: challenges and opportunities in dairy conversion