Farmer Focus: Grass covers build ahead of spring turnout
Jonathon Hughes © Tim Scrivener As we approach turnout, we hope for milder, drier and longer days to reduce soil moisture levels.
Average cover is sitting at about 2,450kg dry matter (DM)/ha, with the highest covers at more than 3,000kg DM/ha.
When soil moisture levels are high early in the season, these are often the hardest paddocks to achieve good residuals in the first round of grazing, because of soiling and, therefore, wastage.
See also:Â How to manage dairy cows at grass as seasons get more extreme
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On our autumn-calving system, average farm covers build up with a steady winter grass growth in a mild winter.
Unlike a spring-calving system, where grazing continues until December, a defined closing cover can be targeted.
As an autumn calver, we house fully from late October to achieve a stable housed ration three weeks before breeding.
This helps us maximise fertility potential, and allows grass covers to build higher for spring turnout, with a lengthened rest period.
The nutritional benefit of fresh grass intakes cannot be underestimated, with first-round grass samples showing more than 25% crude protein and more than 12.8MJ of metabolisable energy/kg DM.
This explains the second peak in lactation yield often witnessed on an autumn-calving system.
Until the end of March/early April, we will turn out during the day.
To maximise intakes, reduce wastage and limit poaching in marginal ground conditions, we will subdivide paddocks so cows can be moved and backfenced every one to two hours.
This saves the herd from loafing around on the same area for more than five hours and reduces soiling and wastage, particularly with a high stocking density on high grass covers.
It’s labour intensive, but it pays in production by maintaining intakes and limiting pasture damage.
To achieve these objectives, good paddock infrastructure with multiple gateways for track access and strategic water trough placement is paramount.
On the paddocks with higher covers, we have avoided any slurry application until they have been grazed, to limit rejection when grazing. Instead, we will apply 20-25cu m/ha once grazed.
All silage land has had first application with umbilical, thanks to a new under-road crossing, which has had a huge cost saving over using tankers and reduced damage to tracks.
If conditions allow, we will run the tanker on off-lying fields or set up a nurse tank for umbilical spreading.