Average grass growth rates are very good at present. Most farms are growing in excess of 75kg of grass per hectare per day.

These are good growth rates for early July.

However, some farms, particularly those in dry locations that didn’t receive much rain, are getting dry and growth rates are beginning to dip into the low 60s and below.

Don't panic

While there is no need to panic just yet, it is worth keeping in mind that grass growth could drop over the coming weeks, as there is no rain in the long-range forecast.

The best way to mitigate this is to be at the upper end of the grass targets.

Generally speaking, at this time of year the target is to be at an average farm cover per cow of between 170kg and 190kg.

If you are on a dry farm in a part of the country that gets dry weather, then I would be inclined to be at the upper end of that target range.

The downside of this is that at a high stocking rate, the pre-grazing yield will be slightly higher than you’d like compared with a lower cover per cow figure.

The way around this is to run a lower stocking rate such as three cows/ha, so the cover per cow will still be high but the pre-grazing yield will still be reasonable.

If you are sure the farm will continue to grow well over the coming weeks, then you can afford to drop the cover by taking out more paddocks for bales.

However, you need to be careful not to take out too many paddocks and suppress growth rate.

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