Grass+Dairy: what do we do about our targets now?

It has been a super start to March and a great chance for cows and cattle alike to get out to grass.

For those who are on target it’s important to keep measuring regrowth as this will determine when the second round will start and adjust your targets accordingly.

You want to be starting your second round when the first paddocks grazed are at a cover of 1,200kgDM/ha.

After a challenging February many have fallen behind the targets of 30% grazed by 1 March, 60% by 17 March and 100% by 1 April (add 10 to 14 days on wetter/colder ground).

If you have only started grazing in the last week the temptation is to try and catch up on spring grazing targets. Instead of catching up, adjust the target by pushing out the second round by 10 to 14 days to the second week of April.

A spring rotation planner will give you a target area to graze each day from now until you plan to start the second round. A feed budget will determine if supplementation is required to get you to the start of the second round without dropping the average farm cover too low.

Both of these are available on PastureBase Ireland. With a deterioration in weather conditions forecasted this weekend on/off grazing should be reintroduced. Restrict silage before letting cows out to grass to ensure they have an appetite and return to the shed after three hours.

We currently have 28% of the farm grazed which is almost on target 30% by 10 March. The dry weather really helped with residuals and we are averaging 3.5cm. The cows are currently grazing covers of 1,600kg DM on dryer parts of the farm. To date 20% of the farm as got slurry at 2,500 gallons per acre and the other 80% has received 23units of nitrogen in the form of protected urea. We started calving a month ago and there is 67% of the herd calved. The SCC is high at the minute with a couple of results over 300,000. We have no clinical cases but are stripping all cows and using the CMT to check for problem cows.

We started calving five weeks ago and currently have 80% of the cows calved. Cows got out to grass most days since calving began and have 45% of the farm grazed. We are targeting 60% grazed by the 18/19 March. I am watching regrowth’s on the first few paddocks that were grazed very closely as this will dictate when the second round will start. As there is a lot of cows calved we are getting through grass very fast so in the next week we will reassess whether or not to re-introduce some level of silage to slow things down. If the weather over the weekend gets bad I will go back to on off grazing in order to avoid damaging ground.

The average farm cover of the grass plus clover with 150kg nitrogen allowance is 915kgDM/ha. We have 44% of the farm grazed as of Monday the 8 March. Ideal ground conditions for the last 10 days have allowed us to graze heavier covers and some of last year’s reseeded paddocks. At the moment we are out full time and allocating 14kgDM of grass. If the weather deteriorates we will return to on off grazing and reintroduce silage into the diet when in at night. We have 85% calved with no major issues. Cows were weighed and body condition scored last week and averaged 514kg and 3.09BCS. We have 58units of nitrogen out per acre in the form of slurry or protected urea.