Growth rates continue to drop around the country with most feeling the pinch this week. Growth rates are still varied, with some just starting to see the effects of the moisture deficits and others well into a drought situation.

There is rain forecast for the weekend and it is to be slightly heavier than last weekend. However, it has been very much hit and miss around the country and hard to bank on any substantial turnaround in growth.

Farmers only starting to see reduced growth rates this week should try to maintain a cover/LU of 180kg to 200kg. On the other hand, where the average farm cover (AFC) has dropped below 500kg/ha, supplementation needs to increase.

On farms where the AFC has fallen below 500kg/ha, growth rates have declined by 30% in the last week.

When AFC drops to 400kg/ha, you are looking at feeding somewhere close to 6kg grass, 6kg silage and 6kg concentrate. If silage supplies are low, feeding the likes of PKE, soya hull or beet pulp can help fill the gap.

When supplementing at grass it’s important to restrict the area of grass available to the stock in order to get them to eat the less palatable feed sources as PKE or even silage.

Work on a minimum of a 25-day rotation allowing stock to graze a maximum of 4% of the grazing platform each day.

Where there may be an onset of a drought situation it’s important to maximise grass utilization. This means target grazing paddocks that are burning off first as you may be losing grass on these paddocks each day. Keep focusing on graze-outs and avoid any topping.