With grass growing well in most areas across the country, many farmers find themselves in a situation where grass has gotten ahead of cattle and farmers are attempting to graze-out heavy covers while others are managing to take out paddocks for bales and keep it under control.
Speaking at a recent Teagasc farm walk in Camolin, Co. Wexford, Teagasc’s business and technology adviser Robert Sheriff gave an overview of best practice for mid-summer grazing management on beef farms.
Sheriff noted that farmers should try to be grazing a field with a cover of 1,200-1,600kg dry matter (DM) per hectare or an average sward length of 8-10cm.
“The trick is to keep this sort of grass in front of cattle all the time. It’s not easy and that’s where grass management comes into it.”
Sheriff outlined that farmers only need 10-12 days of grass in front of stock at this time of year and advised that farmers cut grass that has gone past 11cm level.
For this system of grass management, the Teagasc advisor suggested farmers should be in a position to cut the grass themselves and call on the contractor for baling and wrapping then.
“If you cut out that tall grass you have leafy grass coming back, what I see the last few weeks is grass getting ahead of stock and farmers rush the rotations.
“This leaves farmers ‘chasing grass’. It means you’re not managing grass, the grass is managing you.”
Commenting on fertiliser application, Sheriff noted that timing is essential. “There’s no sense in putting out too much fertiliser, having too much grass and then having to cut out grass because this all costs money.
“Up until mid May we have a shortage and we are looking for grass and putting on fertiliser, in the middle of May there’s an explosion and it goes out of control with too much grass.
“We should be looking ahead and skipping paddocks going too strong. By doing this, there will be good grass coming back and you will not have to strip graze.”
The Teagasc advisor noted that generally, the advice for beef farmers is ‘Grow in three weeks, graze in three days’. However, recently “grass has been growing at twice the demand so 10-15 days growing before grazing should be sufficient now”.
Concluding, Sheriff emphasised to farmers: “If you want to try manage your grass you have to have some sort of a rotation system. It can be fields or paddocks.
“Paddocks, wire and water troughs as well as temporary electric fencing are all needed to manage grass effectively.”