Having high-quality grass in front of cows is vital to allow for the production of high-quality milk on dairy farms.
During the peak production months for grass it can easily get out of control and quality can drop if it is not managed correctly.
This can result in a lot of poor-quality grass with a high amount of stem and this will then result in poor residuals being achieved on farms.
Grazing
2023 got off to a great start, but it was very much a false start or a false spring as the weather quickly closed in.
Grazing has very much been a challenge since then, making achieving residuals difficult on many farms.
On some farms, cows were housed for much longer than would have been planned.
We now appear to have turned a corner however, and grazing conditions appear to be improving, with the focus now very much on maintaining grass quality.
Grass quality
As the growth rates increase over the next few days weekly rotation lengths need to be shortened, so cows are entering paddocks at the right covers.
Entering paddocks with too high of a cover will result in poor residuals and this is ultimately wasted grass and time.
The milking platform needs to be walked at least once, if not twice a week during these periods of high growth.
The grass situation on farms can change very quickly during these periods
Paddocks where covers have gotten too strong need to mowed and baled. Trying to graze these heavier covers should be avoided, as cows won’t clean them out and they will then need to mowed anyway.
During high growth periods skipping over paddocks shouldn’t be an issue, once the grass on the platform is managed correctly.
Walking the farm regularly allows you to identify surpluses, but it is important that you then act quickly to remove these so they can be reintroduced for the next rotation.
You can also identify paddocks where the quality within the sward has dropped, like when you have a large amount of dung pads or a large amount of stem.