Grass growth is back on track. Growth rates of 70kg/day and higher have been recorded over the last few days.

Farms will very quickly run into surpluses of grass and the first protocol should be to reduce concentrates or silage being fed. In periods of high growth, we need to maximise grass intake.

One kilo of grass grown and fed to the cow will cost 5c during the summer, whereas every kg of concentrate fed will come at a cost of 25c to 30c.

Cover/LU is the best indicator of the amount of grass on farms during the summer months.

Cover/LU is your average farm cover divided by your stocking rate. A general rule of thumb has always been that you want 10 days’ grass ahead of the cows during the summer months.

So a cow that’s eating 18kg DM of grass/day will need 180kg DM of grass to feed her for 10 days. So that gives us a target cover/LU of 160 to 180kg DM for the summer months.

A lot of farms are now close to peak production. We want to maintain this for as long as possible by managing grass quality.

Once paddocks go above 1,600kg DM/ha with a cover/LU of greater than 190kg DM they should be taken off as surplus bales. Farms should now be on an 18-21 day rotation.