Heavy rain in recent weeks disrupted spring-grazing on most farms, but drier weather has seen cows return to grass on many farms.
The spring is always a challenge to get, and keep cows grazing without disruption.
Spring-grazing
This when the use of strip wires and spur roadways becomes an important tool to manage grass and ground conditions on farms.
The aims at this time of the year are to:
- Feed the cow;
- Minimise poaching;
- Achieve residuals.
Feed the cow
Increasing the amount of grazed grass in the cow’s diet is not just about reducing costs.
Increasing the amount of grass in a cow’s diet improves energy, protein and intake potential.
When weather allows, a proportion of your cow’s diet should consist of grass – even if that is only an hour or two worth of grazing.
You should focus on how long can you get cows out for rather than whether or not they go out.
Minimise poaching
It is important that you are flexible with your grazing plan and have paddocks selected that you can graze on wet days and on dry days.
On wet days, allocate small areas and pull cows off them quicker. Use tools like on-off grazing and spur roadways to minimise damage.
Having multiple access points to paddocks becomes extremely useful at this time of year. Where possible, have cows enter and exit from different access points.
Achieve residuals
Hitting residuals sets up the farm for the next grazing rotation, and not hitting residuals can suppress future growth.
Turn cows out to paddocks that are green and have little or no dead material at the base of the sward.
It is important that cows start a good routine of grazing paddocks out well, as it makes it easier when more cows are added and numbers increase.
A freshly calved cow should have a dry matter (DM) intake of about 11kg/day; this will increase by about 0.5-1kg/week, until peak intake is reached at week seven of lactation.
But, it is important that you monitor residuals; if cows do not clean out well you could be over allocating grass.
Reduce the amount allocated/head until you are happy with the clean out, and then you can slowly increase the allocation again.