While April was a very dry month, the last few weeks have been cold and this has slowed growth rates considerably.

Widespread rain on Saturday and Sunday was welcomed by most and the expected lift in air temperatures for the coming week should see grass growth rates increase, although there is a fear that not enough rain fell to ensure prolonged high growth rate.

Many farms are very tight for grass at the moment as growth rates dipped below demand for the past week. This is actually a good position to be in as it means that grass quality will be good. When it comes to grass, the enemy of quality is too much quantity.

Remove silage

With higher growth rates on the way, demand can be increased by removing supplement from the diet and, if surplus grass is present, removing this as silage. The important thing is to measure grass so as to manage growth and demand and make more informed decisions.

We know from experience that when the weather improves at this time of year, grass growth rockets, almost to compensate for the poor growth rates up to now. This poses a challenge to maintain grass quality.

Use the average farm cover per cow as a guide. Ideally, you want to be somewhere around 150 to 180kg of grass per cow. Demand should be set to more or less match growth rate expected for the week, but not higher than the projected growth rate for the next couple of weeks.

A demand of 70kg/day would support a stocking rate of 3.9 cows/ha with a grass intake of 18kg/day. I would be slow to have demand much higher than this.

When picking out what paddocks to close, it makes sense to pick and choose paddocks from throughout the wedge, not just the paddocks with the highest covers. By doing so, if growth rate unexpectedly drops, then the paddocks that were closed with lower covers can be reintroduced and grazed.

Another option is to earmark some paddocks for long-term silage and others for short-term silage that could be cut for bale silage in a few weeks’ time. The overall aim is to reduce your risk of exposure to a short-term grass deficit requiring some supplement.

Fertiliser requirements

On fertiliser, what to spread now depends on stocking rate. Most higher-stocked farms require grass growth rates of 60kg and above so 30 units/acre of nitrogen per month should be spread for April and May.

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Farmer know-how: grassland management