Teagasc advisors will readily admit that it will take a commitment, extending out over a number of years, for every Irish dairy farmer to truly master the challenge of getting the best from grass at the shoulders of the grazing season.
What they point to though, is the very real potential of milk farmers getting significant milk output from grazed grass in the early spring and later autumn months.
Of course, this is all premised on having the grass to eat in the first place.
Meeting this challenge requires farmers committing to the build-up of grass stocks during the months of August and September.
This need is particularly acute on farms where stocking rates are at 3.5 livestock units per hectare and above.
Stocking rate for grazing
Stocking rate is a critical factor in this grass management equation.
On farms stocked below 2.5 livestock units (LU) per hectare, the late summer/early autumn build-up of grass reserves may well take place as a matter of course – even in a year such as this, which has seen effective grassland management prove difficult enough during the peak production months of June and July.
In these cases, the financial benefits of committing to an extended grazing system become immediately obvious; grass grown now at a cost of 4c/kg/DM has a feed out value of 11c during the late autumn and early spring months.
Where more heavily stocked farms are concerned, it may well be a case of balancing the cost equation.
On these units, extra concentrate feeding may well be required immediately in order to allow grass paddocks to grow out, as required, over the coming weeks. This may well push up production costs to round 11c/L now.
However, the benefits of committing to an extended grazing approach will still be felt in terms of a shorter housing period, the production of less slurry, healthier cows and a reduction in the number of working hours required to manage a herd.
Forage potential
Driving the forage production potential of farms over the coming weeks is the fact that all grass swards have now passed the period of the year when they are in their reproductive growth phase.
In other words, vegetative growth only is the order of the day from now until the end of the growing season. So it should be possible to build up heavy, lush covers on all farms over the coming weeks.
Experience on Irish farms has also shown that it is possible for cows to clean out heavy covers of this nature. This, in turn, rules out the need to remove paddocks as silage from now until the end of the year.
Grass monitoring
The regular monitoring of grass stocks is obviously important. This will require farmers to walk their fields and paddocks on a weekly – or more regular – basis.
Producing grass to meet the needs of dairy cows later in the grazing season and early next season is one thing, having the infrastructure to allow this forage to be consumed in the most efficient way possible is another challenge altogether.
The general management principle to be followed in this regard is as follows – give cows access to paddocks with heavier covers on drier days.
If this cannot be achieved for the 2021 grazing season, then farmers are being encouraged to undertake the required level of investment to make it happen for the future.
There is a general recognition within Teagasc that it will take some time for all Irish milk producers to have the infrastructure on their farms fully compatible with those required to make extended grazing a profitable reality.
However, it is a commitment worth making in all cases.