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The Easter weekend has been incredibly good, with daytime temperatures reaching over 20°C in most places. This is sending heat into soils and grass growth is thriving as a result.
I estimate that grass is growing over 70kg/day on average across most farms. Within this, there will be fields growing well in excess of 100kg/day. The burst in growth has come.
Even though a return to colder or perhaps more normal weather is forecast for the rest of the week, I don’t think that growth rates will crash down again. Soil temperatures, daylight hours and nutrient availability are what drive on grass and in most instances all three are available.
It’s very easy to go from a pre-grazing yield of 1,300kg/ha to going into covers of 1,800kg/ha when grass growth is good. The latter will reduce protein percentage in the milk and reduce milk yield too.
You need to watch pre-grazing yield closely over the next few days and skip over paddocks when it gets too strong. Walk the farm every five days to measure grass.
Aim to set the average farm cover at about 160kg to 180kg/cow and set the long-term grass demand at around 70kg/day, which is a stocking rate of just over four cows/ha. When surpluses develop over this, cut them out for silage as soon as possible.
It makes no sense to be feeding high levels of meal when grass growth is good. The most amount of meal that should be fed is 2kg/day to cover for minerals and grass tetany prevention. It doesn’t make sense to feed any more than this.
The response will be low and not enough to justify the extra cost. Plus, grass will be left behind meaning grass quality at the next grazing will have declined.
Rain is set to return on Wednesday and this will increase the risk of grass tetany so make sure cows are covered for it.
Keep the focus on getting good residuals. Doing so will ensure that milk production will continue to be good into May. Leaving off the handbrake now is penny wise and pound foolish.
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