This week’s national average growth rate is 21kg DM/ha/day. Crossing the 20kg mark does represent a slight increase but growth is still slow to really kick into life. Cold temperatures are keeping a lid on things for now, with ground frost and cold north and easterly winds present for most of the last seven days.

Highest growth rates are evident on ground with a combination of reseeded swards, early N and February grazing. The grass struggling the most for growth is on ground that was recently grazed bare as it is more exposed to the cold. While many farmers were signalling difficulty in getting silage ground grazed in time for close-up, this extra grass doesn’t sound like as much of a problem now. As I suggested last week, filling the silage ground with stock to get ground grazed off will provide an opportunity to strip the grazing ground before the second rotation. Even a week should help bridge the gap until magic day.

Farmers looking for a good-yielding, high-quality silage crop will be targeting a cutting date of between 20 and 30 May. In those 10 days, target yields are expected to be 6-7t DM/ha while DMD should also be high at 73-76%.

Depending on growing conditions, a first-cut silage crop will take between six and seven weeks to grow. So with a target cutting date of 25 May, for example, ground should be closed around 5 April.

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