Grass Growth has slowed down on most farms. The lack of rain over the last few weeks is starting to take its toll, leading to a slight soil moisture deficit around the country.

Once soil moisture deficit is greater than 25-30mm it will affect grass growth and on some moderately drained soils the soil moisture deficit is 35-45mm. While the dry weather has certainly affected growth, we are not in a drought situation yet. Soil moisture deficits during the drought last year would have been as high as 90mm.

Even with the low growth rates, a lot of farms still have plenty of grass. The main thing now is to reduce demand and try to hold the grass cover on farms.

Bringing paddocks that have been cut for silage back into the rotation will help do this. If increasing the grazing area isn’t an option, then reducing demand by increasing supplementation may be.

For farms that are finding themselves running short of grass or having less than 10 days grass ahead, action needs to be taken.

Some paddocks originally intended for silage that haven’t gone too strong may have to be grazed.

Grazing these heavy covers will affect production but now is your best chance to graze them, as over the next few weeks grass will be heading to the reproductive phase and starting to head out, increasing the stem content of the sward and reducing the quality.

With growth rates of 50kg/day, the rotation length should be 25 days.