Rainfall has become much more frequent and parts of the country are experiencing heavy downpours.

While many farms needed rain following a dry July, heavier and more marginal land is becoming tricky to manage.

As such, when working a rotational grazing system, try to keep cattle moving to fresh grass every few days.

Don’t force cows to clean out swards tight to the ground, as this will make animals more unsettled and poaching will become a problem.

Spoiled and dirty rejected grass will clean up again once animals are moved to the next paddock. This grass can be cleaned off in the next rotation.

In bigger paddocks, use a back fence to protect grazed areas, as low covers will be more prone to poaching.

Silage ground

Hopefully, there will be extra land for grazing following second-cut silage.

This will allow animals to be spread out over a greater area, reducing stocking density and ground pressure.

Dry land

Even on dry land, cattle are much more unsettled in wet conditions. Where cattle are grazing on extremely low covers during heavy rain, they are more likely to break through electric wires.

On dry farms with limited grass, it will still take another week or two before grass growth gets back on track. Therefore, cattle will continue to require supplementary feeding.

Feeding meal and silage at grass is much more challenging. So either sacrifice a field or headland that can be reseeded, or try to set up ring feeders and troughs on hardcore areas.

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