Grass+: cutting silage like it's early June

Growth rates are averaging 51kg/day, which is still a very good growth rate for the time of year. The 10-year average for the same week is 33kg/day, so there is a bounce after the growth albeit a bit less than some would have expected or needed. This week was like the first week in June with mowers, balers and silage harvesters in full flight. A lot of extra silage was gathered up and it will all be needed.

Soil temperatures are still holding up well, despite some cold nights and grass frosts. Normally, land is slow to heat up and slow to cool down, so the effects of the hot summer should continue to be seen in higher than normal soil temperatures. The target average farm cover for this week should be between 1,100kg/ha and 1,200kg/ha. Some farmers have more grass than this. It’s not a great policy to carry forward more grass than this as good cleanouts become more difficult, regrowth slows and if weather turns wet it will be very messy.

Probably more farmers are below target than above target.

Many are only still recovering from the drought and while growth rates might be higher than normal they started at a very low average farm cover. At this stage, it’s all about managing the demand. It doesn’t make sense to be feeding a lot of supplement to cows that won’t be kept, so sell the cull cows now to reduce demand.

The lower the demand is below growth rate, the more cover you will build.

While growth is higher than normal currently, and is expected to remain higher than normal, it will still drop.

Traditionally, grass growth halves during the month of October. The 10-year average is 33kg/day at the start of the month and only 16kg/day at the end of the month. Last chance for fertiliser – spread around 40kg/ha of nitrogen if you can. Remember, to get units/acre multiply kg/ha by 0.8.

In brief

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Growth steady as closing looms