I’m pretty confident that at some point this week, grass growth rates will go from third gear to fifth gear.

The middle of April can often be a twilight zone between the end of spring and the start of summer. With a projected lift in temperatures by the middle of the week, the knock-on impact on grass growth should be rapid.

If that doesn’t happen we will remain in spring mode for another few days. If it does happen we will move to summer mode when grass growth is greater than demand and it’s all about managing surplus, as opposed to managing supplement as is currently the case.

Rotation

A lot of farms have started or are about to start their second rotation. Most have fully completed their first rotation which is great as it indicates good utilisation was achieved.

Many have achieved this with less nitrogen applied than previously was the case which is also great as it means money has been saved. Despite a few tough days in early March, it’s been a remarkably good spring.

It’s entirely possible that the burst in growth expected later this week is a false dawn and that growth rates drop again, but every day that passes is one day closer to mid-summer so logic would say that the seasonal change is on our side.

Second round

Second round grass is generally higher in digestibility, lower in fibre and lower in dry matter than first rotation grass.

This means that cows’ intake generally increases when they go on to second round grass which coincides with higher demand for feed as they reach peak production.

Keep an eye on pre-grazing yields because these are a proxy for fibre. Very low pre-grazing herbage masses, such as less than 1,000kg/ha can be risky from a nutritional perspective if fibre is low.

There is a risk that cows could get a stomach upset such as acidosis, etc. It’s a particular risk where cows are being fed a lot of concentrates.

So if grass is scarce and supplement is needed, consider feeding some higher fibre feeds such as good quality silage in addition to 3kg or 4kg of meal.

Continue to walk the farm every five to seven days to make decisions quickly and early. Decisions around putting in or taking out feed and how much and when to spread fertiliser will need to be made regularly over the coming weeks.

It’s difficult to give fertiliser advice this year due to costs and different strategies being adopted on different farms.

In the main, my advice for the coming weeks is to spread between 0.7 and one unit of nitrogen per acre per day on grass only swards of perennial ryegrass.

Where clover is present in good quantities there is no reason to spread any more nitrogen on these paddocks as a better response will be achieved by spreading this nitrogen on fields without clover.