Average grass growth this week is up to 29kg per day. Looking back to this time last year, it was only 8kg per day and everyone was in dire straits.

There are different issues this year. Some farmers are cutting surplus paddocks for silage. It makes sense if a low proportion of the farm is grazed, there is too much grass for the stock on the farm and it is too early to close up too much ground for long-term silage.

At least by cutting a section of the farm early, the grass will be coming back and will be available for grazing in mid-April.

The wrong thing to do now is to do nothing. Ground conditions are good in most areas so all stock, including dry cows, should be out where there is enough grass. Most farmers have double the amount of grass that they should have. This is going to hit milk yield and protein in April and May – the peak milk months. You’ll forfeit €50 of profit per cow if milk solids yield is back 0.2kg/cow day during these months because cows are grazing heavy covers.

Cut meal feeding levels down to the minimum required to cover for tetany and remove silage from the diet. Some farmers are grazing through high covers and leaving a lot of grass behind. Again, this is going to affect production later. Even heavy covers should be well grazed out now. While the quality won’t be as good as it is on lighter covers, it’s a lot better than stemmy grass in May and June which will be the consequence of a poor clean-out now.

There should be 80kgN/ha to 90kgN/ha spread to date. Ground that has been grazed in the past two weeks should get priority for fertiliser as this ground will be needed for grazing again in three weeks’ time.

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Turnout continues, thoughts turn to silage ground