Despite the best efforts of programme farmers, keeping good-quality grazing in front of cattle has been a struggle this month.
However, removing surpluses as bales, topping and, in some cases, using sheep or dry cows to clean out paddocks has resulted in most farms now getting back on track with quality.
Additionally, programme farmers have resisted the temptation to cease fertiliser applications.
These applications have been a huge help in maintaining grass quality on paddocks.
Grass quality
Maintaining grass quality is essential if target weight gains and stocking rates are to be realised on individual farms.
Milk yields and weight gains are optimised when cattle are grazing swards at heights of 8cm to 10cm (2,800 to 3,000kg DM/ha) and leaving residuals of 4cm to 6cm (1,500 to 1,600kg DM/ha).
Failure to do this will compromise cattle performance, reduce overall annual growth potential and lead to gradual deterioration of swards.
Breeding
With lots of cow breeding activity over the past month, the programme farmers have now turned their attention to observing cows for repeat breeders. Heats recorded in the first month are being used to assess if there is a large number of repeats.
Past experience has often shown that if just a stock bull is physically serving cows, his fertility could still be poor.
It is essential that cows served three weeks ago are monitored and if there are a high number of repeats (>30%), action should be taken.
Consider rotating bulls or getting a veterinary examination or semen sample if in doubt.
Week in review
Breeding is progressing well on all programme farms, with farmers reporting high levels of activity over the past month.All observed heats are continuing to be recorded.Grass quality is now getting back on track, with regrowth on paddocks that were baled and topped over the past three weeks.Worming programmes are being carried out now on all farms.
Despite the best efforts of programme farmers, keeping good-quality grazing in front of cattle has been a struggle this month.
However, removing surpluses as bales, topping and, in some cases, using sheep or dry cows to clean out paddocks has resulted in most farms now getting back on track with quality.
Additionally, programme farmers have resisted the temptation to cease fertiliser applications.
These applications have been a huge help in maintaining grass quality on paddocks.
Grass quality
Maintaining grass quality is essential if target weight gains and stocking rates are to be realised on individual farms.
Milk yields and weight gains are optimised when cattle are grazing swards at heights of 8cm to 10cm (2,800 to 3,000kg DM/ha) and leaving residuals of 4cm to 6cm (1,500 to 1,600kg DM/ha).
Failure to do this will compromise cattle performance, reduce overall annual growth potential and lead to gradual deterioration of swards.
Breeding
With lots of cow breeding activity over the past month, the programme farmers have now turned their attention to observing cows for repeat breeders. Heats recorded in the first month are being used to assess if there is a large number of repeats.
Past experience has often shown that if just a stock bull is physically serving cows, his fertility could still be poor.
It is essential that cows served three weeks ago are monitored and if there are a high number of repeats (>30%), action should be taken.
Consider rotating bulls or getting a veterinary examination or semen sample if in doubt.
Week in review
Breeding is progressing well on all programme farms, with farmers reporting high levels of activity over the past month.All observed heats are continuing to be recorded.Grass quality is now getting back on track, with regrowth on paddocks that were baled and topped over the past three weeks.Worming programmes are being carried out now on all farms. 
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: