Torrential rain on Thursday night and Friday morning are not what the doctor ordered, and it has left ground conditions in some areas, particularly the west and northwest, much trickier.

These areas had sustained good growth and are now heading in to cover of 2,000kg DM/ha+, which does not help the situation.

Farmers are struggling to achieve clean outs on what will be the final grazing for many paddocks.

With the wet weather, grass dry matter has dropped and the risk of grass tetany has heightened.

Dairy cows should hopefully be receiving magnesium through nuts in the parlour, but for both dairy and suckler cows, supplementation through bucket licks and the inclusion of roughage in the form of hay or straw should be offered to slow down the rate of metabolism and hopefully increase magnesium absorption.

Strip wires

With heavy covers, strip wires will need to be out to achieve graze outs.

Locking cattle into a heavy cover of grass for 36-hour grazing for dairy cows, or a few days grazing for drystock, won’t work.

Cattle will graze the best quality grass to start with and then be left for a sustained period trying to graze white butts, which hammers growth and production.

Twelve-hour strips for dairy cows and 24-hour allocations for drystock is the ideal.

Rotation

With farms now in the last rotation, the heaviest paddocks furthest away from the yard should be on the cows' menu this week.

This will be the ground that will be grazed last in the spring when we have the most grazing power and ground conditions will be improved, so carrying a heavy cover of grass on this is no harm, provided it is not excessively heavy.

Growth is still strong, with over 60kg DM/ha of an average recorded on dairy farms in the last week, so there may need to delay beginning the last round, or a shortening of it, to ensure that closing cover isn’t excessively heavy.