In response to this, some farmers have pulled out toppers to clean up after the cows. If cows haven’t done a good job at cleaning out a paddock, avoid the temptation to top it as it will slow down subsequent growth and you are wasting grass, diesel and time.
It is better to address the cause of a poor cleanout and in most cases this is grazing covers that are gone too strong. Avoid this by skipping over high covers for silage. If a poor cleanout was not achieved then leave it as it is and target it for bale silage the next time it is due to be grazed. By doing so, you are making sure that the cows only eat leafy grass and they are not being asked to graze out stemmy swards so yield and protein percentage won’t suffer.
While there is a cost to making bales, you are generating high-quality winter feed and there will be less of an effect on grass growth than topping and you are still correcting the residual height.
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In response to this, some farmers have pulled out toppers to clean up after the cows. If cows haven’t done a good job at cleaning out a paddock, avoid the temptation to top it as it will slow down subsequent growth and you are wasting grass, diesel and time.
It is better to address the cause of a poor cleanout and in most cases this is grazing covers that are gone too strong. Avoid this by skipping over high covers for silage. If a poor cleanout was not achieved then leave it as it is and target it for bale silage the next time it is due to be grazed. By doing so, you are making sure that the cows only eat leafy grass and they are not being asked to graze out stemmy swards so yield and protein percentage won’t suffer.
While there is a cost to making bales, you are generating high-quality winter feed and there will be less of an effect on grass growth than topping and you are still correcting the residual height.
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