Sheep management: how to manage grazing in difficult conditions

Heavy rainfall in most parts of the country in the last week has led to even more challenges in grazing swards and achieving favourable levels of grass utilisation.

The greatest difficulty is on heavier soils, where poor underfoot conditions are leading to grass becoming soiled with animals becoming unsettled as a result and making it hard to graze out paddocks. This is particularly the case with heavy covers.

While not straightforward, partly grazing these covers and providing a rest period before grazing again is in some cases the only option to achieve a good clean-out of the sward. This can work well where temporary fencing is used to subdivide paddocks.