Grass is in good supply on most farms. Average cover/LU on farms is 220kg, well ahead of the target of 170kg.

Grazing heavy covers will hit production – with reduced milk solids for the dairy farmer and reduced average daily gain in a beef system. It will also lead to poor utilisation of grass, leaving you with higher residuals. This will subsequently lead to poorer grass quality in the next rotation, again hitting production.

Taking out surplus bales as paddocks become too strong will help avoid this and there is no doubt these bales will be valuable in the yard. But farmers with a stocking rate (SR) of less than four LU/ha for the month of May may find themselves spending a lot of time drawing in bales and trying to manage grass quality.

The average growth in May over the last 10 years has been above 75kg/day. At an SR of four LU/ha, given that a cow is eating 16kg of grass/day with 2kg of concentrate, the demand will be 64kg/day.

Grass utilisation dropped on drystock farms over the past few days, with suckler cows difficult to manage on heavy ground. With dry conditions forecast, drystock farms should be aiming for better graze-outs. On drier farms, if growth is ahead of demand, don’t be afraid to close up extra fields for short-term silage.