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There is no denying that this has been an extremely good back end to the year for grazing. Of course, it is the least we deserve after what has been a well and truly disastrous year for growing and grazing grass.
However, what we deserve and what we actually get are two very different things and there is no doubt that farmers can be very thankful for the last month. Growth has been good. Approximately three weeks ago, nights began to get significantly colder and the worry then was whether grass growth might slip dramatically. Thankfully, that was not the case and over the last month, growth has only fallen less than 20kg DM/ha/day.
The other critical factor for grazing in the back end is ground conditions and these too have been extremely satisfactory. It’s a huge difference from the underfoot conditions farmers faced this time last year. For how much longer that lasts remains to be seen. Early indications suggest heavy rainfall could hit large parts of the west before and during the weekend. This might create difficulty once again.
Management
Average growth for the last week was 37kg DM/ha/day, well above the 10-year average. At this stage, if you haven’t started closing off ground, I would really consider doing so.
As I have regularly mentioned, now is time to be thinking about grass supplies next spring. If there is slurry in the yard still to empty, then grazing, applying slurry and closing for the winter would be a good move. Particularly on ground that either got very stressed during the drought or on ground that grew very high volumes of grass in May – P and K might be low here. Lime is another ingredient worth considering and autumn is the best time to apply. Target soil pH is 6.2. If a soil test shows ground pH below this, lime might be needed.
Spread slurry first if thinking of applying both – where slurry is applied first, lime can be applied in 10 days. However, where lime is applied first, you should wait three months before applying slurry.
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