Are you managing your grazing effectively?

Seasonal challenge30-6-2020

Grazed grass when managed well will reduce input costs, especially bought in feed and give excellent returns in both production and profit.

Measuring pasture cover provides useful information for feed budgeting and rotation planning to optimise grazing management. Expensive equipment is not required to asses grass growth, walking the paddocks and checking growth will help assess grass stocks better than just looking over the gate.

Good management and utilisation will reduce the cost of the grass if the below criteria are followed:

Increased utilisation – manage stocking rates to avoid seed heads and to maximise harvesting. Utilisation of grass is often below 50% but can be up to 80% with good management.

Optimise fertiliser use – newer varieties of grass respond better to fertiliser.

Reseed –  when less than 50% of sward is sown species but overseed sooner to maintain yield and quality.

Grass growth – optimum daily grass growth is reached when total growth is 2,000 – 2,500 kg DM/ha, which is around a height of 8 – 12 cm.

Creating a feed plan by measuring grass growth can produce a feed wedge to assess when there will be surplus grass in the grazing rotation or a shortfall, to allow for managing stocks.
 

For more information

For more details about managing your grazing effectively, reseeding or planning a feed programme please contact your local Account Manager or contact our specialist forage team here.