As we enter into the month of August on dairy farms, it is time to start building grass supplies for the autumn grazing months.
This is also an important time to ensure that there is grass available for early turn-out in spring 2022.
Autumn grazing
It is not uncommon for farmers to enter the autumn with a lower grass cover than they would like. With the poor growth experienced in recent weeks, some farmers are behind where they would like to be.
To avoid having lower grass covers, you have to extend the grazing rotation length to between 28-30 days, by September 1.
There are several ways that this can be achieved on farms. The first and probably the most common method to extend the grazing rotation is to reintroduce silage ground to the milking platform.
This should reduce the stocking rate on the milking platform and increase the rotation length.
Another option if the silage ground is not accessible by the milking herd, is to remove the youngstock from the milking platform.
Moving the youngstock off the platform and onto the silage ground will also reduce the stocking rate and increase area available for cows to graze.
Date Cover/cow
(kg DM/ha)Average farm cover
(kg DM/ha)Rotation length Stocking rate of 2.5LU/ha
August 1
Mid-August
September 1
180
200
300
450
500
700
20 days
25 days
30 days Stocking rate of 3.0LU/ha
August 1
Mid-August
September 1
180
250
330
550
750
990
20 days
25 days
30 daysStocking rate of 3.5LU/ha
August 1
Mid-August
September 1
190
220
280
665
770
980
20 days
25 days
30 days
Grazing season
The grazing season so far this year has been challenging, with a number of droughts affecting farms.
This lead to farmers having to introduce silage bales and increase rations in the parlour; because of this, extending the grazing season is important.
Production cost on farms will be up this year due to the droughts, and grass is the cheapest feed available to farmers.
Making the most of grazed grass is important to farmers so they can keep production cost under control.