First thing that needs to be mentioned is that topping should be avoid in periods of low growth like many farms are experiencing now.

And, in general, you want to avoid any topping or pre-mowing on your farm if possible. However that’s in an ideal situation and grass management has to be excellent in every paddock.

To do this, you need to manage grass quality from the start of the year and achieve the target graze-out of 4cm residual every time, giving you maximum utilisation and great-quality grass in the following rotation.

With variable weather conditions in spring, it’s very hard to achieve top graze-outs on every paddock.

So, how are the top grassland farms in the country able to maintain good-quality grass in every paddock without topping or pre-mowing.

Planning

Well, it’s down to management and planning. Make a note of any paddocks grazed out poorly; when a surplus of grass arises on the farm then target those paddocks for surplus bales.

This corrects quality and gives you a return for your labour and diesel from driving around the field in the form of surplus bales.

But we’re well into the grazing season now and there will be a lot farms that will not achieve the ideal graze-outs and pre-grazing yields have gotten to strong.

Quality and utilisation of these swards will drop straight away and forcing stock to graze out these swards to the 4cm residual will only hit production.

If it’s not possible to correct this by taking surplus bales at different stages throughout the rest of the grazing season then topping or pre-mowing are options.

Topping

When topping paddocks, it’s important to only a select few each rotation. Topping a paddock will slow growth down by two or three days and topping a lot of paddocks in the one rotation is a sure way to leave yourself short of grass.

Topping needs to be done straight away after grazing, otherwise you will hit the regrowths and slow subsequent growth even further.

The advantage of pre-mowing is you’re not going to hit the regrowths or slow down growth in the paddock as much as topping.

The disadvantage is that you force the cow to eat all the herbage in the field. Cows are selective grazers and will select the good-quality feed to eat.

Pre-mowing takes this option away from them forcing them to eat the good- and poor-quality grass together, which will hit production.

However, you will see increased utilisation and intake. And given that there is still a high percentage of top-quality grass available, the hit to production can be very small.