So far, 2020 hasn’t been easy. February has been exceptionally wet in most places and the start of March isn’t looking like it’s going to be much different.
Most farmers are familiar with the target of grazing 30% of the farm within the first four weeks of the planned start of calving. For farmers who start calving at the end of January, this means grazing 30% of the farm in February.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of farmers are going to miss that target this year, for legitimate reasons in most cases.
If land is too wet to walk cows on, then cows shouldn’t walk on it
If land is too wet to walk cows on, then cows shouldn’t walk on it. As a collective, Irish dairy farmers have invested about €1.6bn on facilities to house cows during times of bad weather in the winter and at the shoulders of the year.
It’s much better to make use of these facilities and avoid damage to fields during these periods of prolonged wet weather.
However, that’s not to say that all farmers should throw in the towel when it comes to grazing.
Dry land
Those on dry land should continue to make use of the low-hanging fruit – dry fields with a low cover and using on/off grazing with good grazing infrastructure.
There is a dividend from early spring grazing. The first is reduced workload when cows are out; no silage to be fed or cubicles to be cleaned. The second is reduced feed costs when cows are out and the third is higher milk yield and composition when grass is in the diet.
The thing is, while there’s a dividend from early spring grazing, there is also a penalty for not grazing in early spring.
That penalty will come in the form of reduced milk price next May and June due to grazing covers that are too high, which reduces fat and protein percentages and milk volume.
Challenge
The challenge from now on is to manage grass to prevent a big surplus at the end of March and a big deficit in April. This will come about because:
There will be loads of grass available when the weather improves in March. Post-grazing heights will be higher than normal.It will be impossible to have all the farm grazed in March.In early April, you will have no choice but to skip paddocks for silage.There will be insufficient regrowth back on the first grazed paddocks to sustain a rotation length of 18 to 20 days in April. This is due to two reasons; not enough time for the grass to recover after grazing and slower recovery because the cover was higher in the first place.Furthermore, because a portion of the farm is closed for silage, the stocking rate and demand is much higher in April. Farmers will have to feed extra supplement such as meal or silage, or more likely graze a paddock or two that should be out for silage. This will reduce milk yield and milk solids.Solution
There is no real solution to this problem. However, the following steps will help to minimise as many of the negatives as possible:
You need to plan for a later than normal start to the second rotation. If you normally start on 5 April, aim for 10 April this year. Split the farm into three divisions; low covers, medium covers and high covers. Leave aside everything with a high cover.Walk the fields with low and medium covers and decide which paddocks are dry enough to be grazed first. Ideally, all the low covers should be grazed first and then move into the medium covers. Aim to have one third of the farm grazed by St Patrick’s Day and two thirds grazed by 30 March.Keep grazing in the first rotation until there is enough grass back on the first grazed paddocks to sustain an 18- to 20-day rotation length, with the remaining paddocks in the first rotation out for silage. Spread nitrogen across the whole farm to ensure fast recovery after grazing. Read more
Watch: stop-start grazing in north Offaly
Fertiliser advice for spring 2020
So far, 2020 hasn’t been easy. February has been exceptionally wet in most places and the start of March isn’t looking like it’s going to be much different.
Most farmers are familiar with the target of grazing 30% of the farm within the first four weeks of the planned start of calving. For farmers who start calving at the end of January, this means grazing 30% of the farm in February.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of farmers are going to miss that target this year, for legitimate reasons in most cases.
If land is too wet to walk cows on, then cows shouldn’t walk on it
If land is too wet to walk cows on, then cows shouldn’t walk on it. As a collective, Irish dairy farmers have invested about €1.6bn on facilities to house cows during times of bad weather in the winter and at the shoulders of the year.
It’s much better to make use of these facilities and avoid damage to fields during these periods of prolonged wet weather.
However, that’s not to say that all farmers should throw in the towel when it comes to grazing.
Dry land
Those on dry land should continue to make use of the low-hanging fruit – dry fields with a low cover and using on/off grazing with good grazing infrastructure.
There is a dividend from early spring grazing. The first is reduced workload when cows are out; no silage to be fed or cubicles to be cleaned. The second is reduced feed costs when cows are out and the third is higher milk yield and composition when grass is in the diet.
The thing is, while there’s a dividend from early spring grazing, there is also a penalty for not grazing in early spring.
That penalty will come in the form of reduced milk price next May and June due to grazing covers that are too high, which reduces fat and protein percentages and milk volume.
Challenge
The challenge from now on is to manage grass to prevent a big surplus at the end of March and a big deficit in April. This will come about because:
There will be loads of grass available when the weather improves in March. Post-grazing heights will be higher than normal.It will be impossible to have all the farm grazed in March.In early April, you will have no choice but to skip paddocks for silage.There will be insufficient regrowth back on the first grazed paddocks to sustain a rotation length of 18 to 20 days in April. This is due to two reasons; not enough time for the grass to recover after grazing and slower recovery because the cover was higher in the first place.Furthermore, because a portion of the farm is closed for silage, the stocking rate and demand is much higher in April. Farmers will have to feed extra supplement such as meal or silage, or more likely graze a paddock or two that should be out for silage. This will reduce milk yield and milk solids.Solution
There is no real solution to this problem. However, the following steps will help to minimise as many of the negatives as possible:
You need to plan for a later than normal start to the second rotation. If you normally start on 5 April, aim for 10 April this year. Split the farm into three divisions; low covers, medium covers and high covers. Leave aside everything with a high cover.Walk the fields with low and medium covers and decide which paddocks are dry enough to be grazed first. Ideally, all the low covers should be grazed first and then move into the medium covers. Aim to have one third of the farm grazed by St Patrick’s Day and two thirds grazed by 30 March.Keep grazing in the first rotation until there is enough grass back on the first grazed paddocks to sustain an 18- to 20-day rotation length, with the remaining paddocks in the first rotation out for silage. Spread nitrogen across the whole farm to ensure fast recovery after grazing. Read more
Watch: stop-start grazing in north Offaly
Fertiliser advice for spring 2020
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