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It has been a bumper year for grass growth and for many farmers, there is still surplus grass on farm.
Given the abundance of grazing, it is difficult to imagine running out of grass ahead of the autumn period.
However, grass growth naturally starts to tail off from mid to late August. Therefore, it is important that farmers make every effort to grow as much grass as possible over the next two to three weeks.
This extra grass can be banked and used to keep cattle grazing into late autumn, provided ground conditions allow.
Ideally, grazing rotations at the start of August should be around 21 days in length. This should be increased to around 25 days by the beginning of September and 30 days by October.
Outlined are five tips for building grass covers over the next month to extend grazing into late autumn.
1 Bring silage ground into the rotation
The easiest option to build grass covers on farm is to increase the size of the grazing area. With second-cut silage being harvested, there is the option to bring more ground back into grazing block.
It will also allow farmers operating on heavier land to spread cattle over a larger area, reducing the risk of poaching should ground conditions become difficult to manage.
2 Fertiliser
Given the abundance of grass on farms, the natural instinct would be to hold off applying fertiliser.
However, it is important to apply one more round of nitrogen by mid-August to give grass growth one last boost ahead of autumn. If weather permits, apply the final fertiliser dressing in early September.
Ideally, use a compound NPK fertiliser with added sulphur to maximise growth, with 25 to 30 units/acre of nitrogen being spread in each dressing.
If slurry is being applied as a fertiliser, be aware that the nitrogen availability of slurry is lower when spread in summer and autumn.
Therefore, the response in grass growth will be lower compared to slurry applied on spring grazing.
3 Leave higher grazing residuals
As grass growth starts to tail off towards the end of the summer, a good way to build grass covers is to leave a higher grazing residual when animals are removed from paddocks.
In the first half of the grazing season, the advice is to graze paddocks as tight as possible, or at least graze down to 4cm in sward height which is the around the point of your toe.
This way, there will be high-quality grass coming in the regrowth. But in August, there are fewer issues with grass turning to seed heads.
Therefore, grazing down to 6cm will leave more residual leaf to kickstart grass growth for the next rotation.
Leaving a higher grazing residual means moving cattle earlier to the next paddock. This is where bringing the silage ground into the grazing block is an advantage, as it provides extra paddocks to move cattle around.
4 Top off dead grass
With grazing surpluses on most farms, it has been a difficult summer to manage grass. In swards where there are high levels of rejected, stemmy grass, it is important to top these swards.
Otherwise, the rejected grass will start to die back. Dead grass reduces grass growth for the rest of the season, especially during August and September.
This could mean cattle have to be housed earlier, or silage bales have to be fed to supplement grazing.
Topping grass now will mean that 100% of the sward is growing during the remainder of the year.
5 Control grazing
Controlling the size of the grazing area will help to build covers ahead of cattle. Use temporary electric fencing to reduce the size of each grazing paddock area to avoid grass being wasted. This will give paddocks ahead of cattle more time to accumulate grass covers during August.
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