Grazing quality now good for milk

“It’s generally been a good week for grazing,” says DairyCo extension officer, Piers Badnell. “It’s been fairly dry, so grass dry matters have been correspondingly high and, combining this with good energy levels, cows should generally be getting plenty of milk from grazing.

“Although we were about four weeks behind with growth in early March, we’re generally far further ahead than this now, after a warmer spell in April.

“Some dairy farmers have already taken their first cut of silage and most will probably want to be getting on with it soon, if they haven’t already started.”

Aftermaths

But once the silage is in, farmers must ‘strongly resist’ the temptation to turn cattle straight on to aftermaths, says Mr Badnell, as this will slow the speed of regrowth and reduce overall yield.

“It’s bad practice to do this, as the plant uses its accumulated energy store at its base to produce the first leaf,” he says.

“If it is grazed too soon - in other words before it has put up a second leaf - its regrowth will be slow. The second leaf could take anything up to 10 or 11 days per leaf when temperatures are low.”

Attention after cutting should also turn to staggering the availability of grass for grazing to avoid a glut of grass all at the same growth stage later in the season.

“You’d normally enter cows to graze at 2,500 to 2,700kg DM per hectare, but if you have a large block of grass, you may want to come back to part of it earlier - say at around 2,000 to 2,200kg.

“The next area should be grazed with slightly more cover, say 2,300kg, continuing until you reach the field at around 2,500 to 2,700kg.

“You don’t want to graze anything above 3,000kg DM per hectare, so after this level you should be considering that sward for second cut silage.”

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