Grazing swards are heading out around the country, despite the best efforts of even the best grassland managers.

Grass is a plant and all plants produce a seed to reproduce. Grass is no different.

As swards head out, there is more stem present, which cattle tend to leave behind when moving on to the next paddock.

Trying to hold cattle in paddocks simply to graze out the stem is hard to do.

By delaying the move to fresh grass, it also means the swards ahead of cattle are getting too strong, making the problem worse.

Make peace

Therefore, it is best to make peace with leaving stem behind in this rotation.

So don't force cattle to eat stem if they don't want to. Move cattle on to the next paddock after the usual three or four days, then come in with the topper.

Once topped, the sward base will be clean and provide higher-quality grass in the next rotation.

As the grazing season moves into July, swards will stop heading out and grass utilisation will improve.

Topping should only be a short-term practice simply to keep grass quality under control throughout June.

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What to do with stemmy grass

Topping grass to maintain sward quality

Where cattle enter swards that have headed out, grass utilisation will drop, leaving a lot of stem behind. Topping grass is a short-term fix to maintain grass quality in June.