Grass surpluses are arising on a lot of farms this week with the jump in growth. Farmers need to be proactive in walking the farm every five days and act quickly to control grass quality.

If surplus grass is identified, it should be removed straight away where possible. Growth is artificially high for the time of year due to the post-drought burst of growth.

Plants were restricted by moisture for so long they weren’t able to avail of the nutrients in the ground.

Now that rain has come in abundance, the plant is finally able to avail of all the nutrients built up in the ground and hence the sudden jump in growth.

Leaving grass behind

Once pre-grazing yield exceeds 1,500kg/ha - no matter how good the quality of the grass is - achieving a good clean-out becomes very difficult, as stock will walk down grass and leave it behind.

This is especially seen in the current conditions, as the wet weather has led to dirty roadways and grass being spoiled as stock walk over it.

With a lot of poorer-quality grass around after the stress of the moisture deficit, this gives farmers a great chance to correct quality going into the second half of the year.

Stocking rates

The cover/LU on farms should be kept close to 180kg and where the growth exceeds demand, you can go as low as 170kg/LU.

Stocking rates on farms for the month of July should be kept between 3.5 and 4 LU/ha.

Given that the average growth over the last 10 years for July has been 65kg to 70kg/day, keeping demand similar will make managing grass a lot easier.

The most important thing to remember when grazing in July is to reset the farm and manage grass quality, as once we get into August the focus will turn to building covers to help extend the grazing season and there will be very little opportunity to correct grass quality.

July is also a good month to save on levels of concentrate fed.

Reducing the concentrates has two big benefits. It will help control grass quality by increasing demand.

But also saving feed in July will allow you to feed that bit extra in August and September when you may need to slow down the rotation and build grass.