Monday management: graze on while ground is good

While conditions are dry, it is cold enough at night, so grass growth has not been as high as some might have expected.

That said, it is wonderful weather and great to be able to get cows out to grazing. Grass dry matters have increased and it is taking cows longer to clean out paddocks than it was.

Achieving a good clean-out is important to ensure quality in the next round. Just because there is a lot of grass on farm does not mean that the eye should be taken off residuals. Quality in the next and subsequent rounds of grazing is hugely important for milk yield and protein percentages.

High risk of grass tetany

The weather forecast is for milder weather to track across the country tomorrow, bringing with it light and scattered showers. Now would probably be a good time to get some of the heavier parts of the farm or reseeds grazed off in advance of any rain which might come.

Try to increase the proportion of ground grazed now, as this will allow for more time for regrowths before being grazed again in the second round. Do this by grazing lighter covers (although if you have high covers, it probably makes more sense to graze these now in dry weather).

The other option is to turn out other stock such as maiden heifers, cattle and dry cows. Again, you must make sure that these animals achieve target residuals.

Reducing or eliminating supplement to milking cows is another method of increasing the area grazed. If doing this, make sure you cover for grass tetany, as the risks are high with cold nights and there are reports of cases across the midlands. The options are paddock dusting or supplementing in the water.

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