Experts are advising farmers to start planning now for early spring grass for your stock, as we are now entering the final third of the year and the final few weeks of the grazing season.
It is impossible to predict what the weather and ground conditions will be like next February and early March for grazing, but the one certainty, is that you will have plenty of stock available to take advantage of high quality grass if it is available.
Having this grass available is the responsibility of each individual farmer to ensure that if the weather and ground conditions are favourable early next spring that there is grass there to graze.
“It is better to be looking at the grass in the spring, rather than looking for it,” as the saying goes.
Traditionally, very little growth occurs between November and February, therefore in order for grass to be available for grazing in February/early March, it must be grown this October.
For that reason, each year the grassland management calendar starts in the autumn.
The closing date of paddocks and how they are grazed out in the months of October and November will have a direct effect on the amount of grass available on your farm next February and March.
The ‘autumn rotation planner’ is a key tool used during the last grazing rotation.
Spring grass
The plan must be to close up a set amount of the farm each week until the whole grazing area is closed and animals housed.
The paddocks to be closed first in the autumn should be the paddocks/fields that are dry, have adequate access points and are further from the yard, these are the paddocks that weather permitting can be grazed in early March with covers in excess of 1200kg DM/ha.
The next set of paddocks to be closed should be closer to the yard, have multiple access points, be sheltered, have been relatively recently reseeded and are the quickest growing.
These fields can allow stock out in February as they are generally the driest, most sheltered, close to the yard and will have covers of 800 – 1200kg DM/ha, allowing transition from a silage to a grass-based diet.
The autumn grassland planner is based on a 60:40 rule of thumb, where 60% of the total farm area should be closed by approximately November 7 or one to two weeks earlier on wetter farms.
A consistent amount should be closed each week up to this date. When calculating your target areas, ensure to include all lands to be grazed in the spring, including silage ground that will be grazed before closing for silage.
If you start closing ground on the week of the October 10, you have 4 weeks, to achieve your 60% target, therefore 15% of ground should be closed each week. The remaining 40% should be closed from the 7th November to housing.
The idea is that when all paddocks are closed by early December that there would be a range of grass covers on the farm from grazed out (4cm) to 8/9cm.
This would give an average farm cover of around 6/7cm which equates to 500 – 750kg of DM/ha. This will be the grass that will be available next spring before the growth starts.
See and hear about an autumn rotation planner in action
On Thursday, September 5 at 6:00p.m, Aidan Maguire is hosting a Dairy Beef 500 farm walk and Live Forum on his farm where all are welcome to come along and see his dairy calf to beef system in action.
Host farmer Aidan places a lot of emphasis on having a long grazing season and having quality grass ahead of his cattle for as many days as possible.
In order to get animals out early next spring Aidan realises the importance of planning for next spring’s grazing now.
Currently, Aidan, has approximately 133ac grassland for grazing next spring. In order to have 60% (80ac) of this grazed by November 7, he will need to close 15% (20ac) of his farm each week, if he starts closing fields from the week of October 10.
An autumn rotation plan was put in place for Aidan’s farm and fields/paddocks were identified to meet these targets.
Paddocks 2, 4 and 8 are good dry fields that are a bit away from the yard that could be grazed in late February/early March next spring. These will be the first closed giving 18ac.
Stock will graze them out tight to have good quality grass growing from the base.
During the second week, all the red clover silage ground will be tightly grazed off and closed. Carrying a large cover on these swards will have a detrimental impact on how they will perform in the following year.
As we move into the second half of October, it is important to get heavier lands grazed out before the real depths of winter set in.
For this reason, Aidan has identified the lower fields as the next paddocks to graze out. These fields are slightly heavier type soils and if the weather breaks they would be slightly more difficult to graze out properly.
The home and the meadow paddocks will then be grazed in the first week of November. This is dry ground and is further away from the yard.
The remaining 40% (53ac) will be grazed out between the November 7 and housing. Depending on weather a number of animals may have been housed by now and this area can be covered by younger lighter stock.
Grazing out paddocks too fast
If you are ahead of the target areas to be grazed, extra stock may need to be housed earlier than was planned or if ground conditions allowed you could offer supplementary feeding at grass.
Heavier cattle should be housed first if ground conditions deteriorate.
Grazing out paddocks too slowly
If you are grazing too little area to meet the targets, then the rotation needs to be sped up, this can be done by grazing some of the lighter covers first in order to get the required area grazed off.
Key points
- Start closing from October 10, one to two weeks earlier on heavier farms;
- Graze fields/paddocks out tight to ensure that new grass is fresh from the base;
- Meet the targets areas per week, if not the grass won’t have enough time to grow;
- Even if the weather is good during mid-November, don’t be tempted to graze fields that are closed over a month and have nice covers on them.
Dairy calf to beef ‘Farm Walk’ and ‘Live Forum’ event
We look forward to meeting you on Thursday, September 5 at 6:00p.m on the farm of Aidan Maguire, Navan, Co. Meath for what should be a very interesting and informative event.
The theme of the event is ‘Making the winter gains’ , which will be of great interest to both dairy farmers and those interested in rearing dairy bred stock.
Topics on the day will include, Aidan’s current farming system and his financial performance, grassland management tips including red clover swards, animal health and winter feeding options for finishing and weanling animals.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in a live forum, where there is an excellent panel of key industry stakeholders lined up to give their views and opinions on current dairy calf to beef enterprises.
John Donlon of Teagasc will discuss all animal health matters in preparation for the upcoming winter housing period.
Matthew Armstrong on behalf of Drummonds, will discuss winter feed diets and non-feed factors that help to maximise animal performance.
Host farmer, Aidan Maguire, will give his personal experiences of dairy calf to beef systems and how he maximises his performance form grass and Jonathon Forbes, Kepak will provide information on the market specifications and what type of animal for slaughter is required by the factories.
Pearse Kelly, head of Drystock at Teagasc will chair the forum providing an opportunity for all in attendance to ask the experts views on all things dairy calf to beef.
This farm walk and forum is free to attend and should be of great interest and provide excellent information to both dairy and beef farmers. We look forward to meeting you on the evening of September 5.
