CAFRE: Now could be time to prioritise autumn grazing administration

A dairy technologist from the School of Agriculture Meals and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) has inspired farmers to prioritise profitable autumn grazing administration.

Robert Patterson mentioned profitable autumn grazing administration will improve the variety of days at grass and guarantee there may be grass out there for grazing the next spring.

The latest settled climate situations have been a welcome change within the latter half of a really unsettled and variable grazing season, he mentioned.

Grass progress on farms in Northern Eire all through August was greater than the long-term common and this could have made it attainable on many farms to extend the grazing rotation size and common farm cowl approaching September.

“A surplus of grass can have been constructed up in August on some farms and hopefully these can have been eliminated in late August,” Patterson mentioned.

“Taking out surplus grass after the primary week of September ought to be averted if attainable, as grass progress charges can fall shortly and paddocks eliminated won’t have sufficient time to regrow and supply grass for the ultimate grazing rotation.”

Autumn grazing

Patterson mentioned creating an autumn rotation plan is a invaluable software to handle autumn grazing and guarantee there shall be grass out there for grazing within the following spring.

The rotation plan will decide the world to be grazed every day, primarily based on the preliminary common farm cowl, the specified housing date and the goal closing farm cowl.

It will be important, he mentioned, to proceed to measure and funds grass weekly, to permit progress to be tracked and handle supplementation if required.

“Efficiently managing autumn grazing will improve the variety of days at grass, cut back the price of feeding the animals, preserve invaluable winter forage provides, and put together the grazing platform for turnout within the following spring,” Patterson mentioned.

“Cautious administration shall be required to minimise sward harm and obtain good ranges of grass utilisation.

“The total vary of grazing instruments and methods ought to be used the place relevant, together with using a number of entry and exit factors, utilizing spur roads to entry the again of paddocks, utilizing 24- and 12-hour allocations, again fencing animals from grazed areas and on-off grazing if required.”

Whereas climate and floor situations are beneficial, farmers ought to intention to graze paddocks with heavier soils and heavier grass covers to cut back sward harm and improve the utilisation of those swards.

“Goal to extend the grazing rotation size from 30 days initially of September to 35 days by mid-September and 40 days by the beginning of October,” Patterson mentioned.

“The common farm cowl ought to attain its peak in mid-late September (2,600–2,750kg DM/ha), earlier than lowering to a goal closing farm cowl of two,050–2,100kg DM/ha.

“Prioritise contemporary calved cows for housing first, with late lactation and decrease yielding cows being the final to be housed. Grass will presently present power for upkeep plus 11L.”

As grass provide reduces and supplementation is required, Patterson has suggested to introduce silage steadily with on-off grazing and transition the food plan slowly.

He suggested that paddocks best suited for spring turnout be recognized now and these ought to be grazed in the midst of the ultimate grazing rotation.

“This could imply that these paddocks can have grass covers appropriate for turnout (2,400–2,600kg DM/ha) and make good ranges of grass utilisation extra achievable,” he mentioned.