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Heavy rain has been widespread across the country and ground conditions are extremely difficult to manage.
For many farmers, there is a wealth of grass to graze off and it is still too warm to house all cattle, especially calves.
While some farmers have housed animals, others are trying to keep animals moving to fresh grass.
Where the aim is to keep animals grazing, outline are five tips to limited ground damage.
1. Grazing in smaller groups
For the majority of spring-calving herds, the breeding season will now be over. Therefore, take away the stock bull, split cows into smaller groups and spread them out over the whole farm.
Hopefully, there will be some better weather to come in September. If it does come and ground conditions improve, there is an option to regroup animals for easier management.
In the meantime, prioritise spring-calving cows and calves for grazing. To free up more ground, there are a number of options to consider.
Firstly, forward stores destined for winter finishing will be better off housed instead of feeding concentrate outdoors. Wet grass means these animals will struggle to thrive.
Dry autumn cows are most likely housed. But if not, these animals should be brought indoors for easier management.
Again, this frees up ground for spring cows and calves. For cows that calve from mid-February to mid-April, scanning will identify any barren cows.
These cows could be housed and their calves weaned. Barren cows can be fattened or an easier alternative is to offload live while they are in good body condition.
2. Do not force cows to clean out swards
Do not hold cows in paddocks to try to clean out swards fully. When wet, this will only make animals more unsettled.
Where ground is soft, swards will be poached and soiled quickly. So keep cows moving after 24 to 48 hours from entering a paddock.
As there is no risk of swards heading out at this stage, don’t worry about clean-out. Where grass is left behind in this rotation, rain and rest will clean up the sward for grazing in the next rotation.
3. Increase the rotation length
Moving cattle to fresh grass every 24 to 48 hours means you will shorten rotations. Therefore, bringing in silage aftermaths, housing finishing cattle and offloading surplus stock will provide more ground to graze.
Try to keep the rotation to at least 20 days or, ideally, extend it to around 25 to 30 days to see cattle through September.
A longer rotation gives paddocks more time to recover between each grazing.
When grazing in 24-hour allocations, there is no need to provide water in every block. Every second allocation is fine.
Grass will be low in dry matter and, with regular rain, cattle will have a lower requirement for drinking water.
4. Using a back fence
If spreading cattle out in smaller groups is not an option, split fields into 24- to 48-hour grazing blocks with temporary electric fencing.
When moving cattle to the next allocation of grass, set up a back fence to keep animals off the grazed areas. This will protect swards with low covers from excessive damage.
5. Avoid meal troughs and creep feeders
When grazing in wet conditions, the temptation is to offer higher levels of concentrate. But feeding in troughs is only recommended where there is a hardcore area available.
Using troughs in fields will lead to heavy poaching. Cattle will also congregate around troughs waiting to be fed, increasing the damage area.
Forward stores will be gaining very little on wet grass. Even on a dry day in September, grass dry matter will be low. These animals would be better off housed on high-quality silage and concentrate.
Where calves are fed through ad-lib creep feeders, they will also cause sward damage and poach the surrounding area.
If mobile troughs are not an option, look to see if creep feeders can be placed on hardcore areas or laneways that calves can access through a creep gate.
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