Steps to growing and utilising more grass

When it comes to feed, grass is by far the cheapest option available in Ireland and it must be central to efficient and profitable sheep farming. This was highlighted at the Teagasc Sheep Open Day which was held in the Teagasc sheep research centre in Athenry, Co Galway.

At the event last week, research officer Philip Creighton from Teagasc Athenry said the gap between the top third of farms and the bottom third in terms of gross margin is €1,329/ha versus €268/ha. While fixed costs were nearly identical, the real difference came in the number of lambs sold per hectare. The top third averaged 16 lambs/ha, while the bottom third was half that at six lambs/ha.

Creighton said the two key drivers of profitability are the number of lambs reared per ewe joined and the stocking rate. However, the resulting output increase from improving both these areas will not translate into a higher gross margin necessarily, unless it is supported by maximising the use of grazed grass, he said.

“This means reducing the reliance on concentrate feed, the single biggest variable cost on sheep farms, and increasing the percentage of lambs finished off a grass-only diet,” explained Creighton.

Grazing infrastructure was highlighted as a key area to achieve this.

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Grazing infrastructure

Research carried out by Teagasc has shown that it takes almost one tonne of grass DM to sustain a ewe and her progeny for a year. This means that a farm’s stocking capacity is limited to the number of tonnes of grass grown per hectare. One proven method of increasing this figure is to install a rotational grazing system.

Creighton says every farmer can potentially increase the amount of grass grown on their farms by making small changes to their grazing infrastructure.

Ideally, this involves subdividing larger fields into smaller paddocks. The aim should be to graze paddocks in five to six days. Taking the example, on the day, of a 100-ewe flock that has a stocking rate of 10 ewes/ha, it would mean having five grazing divisions that are 2ha to 3ha in size. This would assume an average grass cover of 7cm to 8cm (1,200kg DM/ha) and that the ewes had a daily demand of 400kg DM/day.

A very interesting display showing a number of fencing options, useful for making these divisions, was on show at the open day. This detailed the options for both temporary and permanent sheep fencing. Table 1 shows these different options.

Permanent fencing

Damian Costello from Teagasc said most farmers will opt to erect permanent sheep fencing on the perimeter of the farm to ensure sheep cannot stray from the holding. The permanent fencing is a long-term approach and is ideal for boundaries.

Grant aid available through the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) II is also an option for farmers to help reduce the cost of erecting such fencing. Temporary fencing can then be used to divide larger fields into smaller paddocks. The temporary fencing is ideal in these situations because it can be easily moved if needs be to alter the size of the paddocks.

A well-designed paddock system will allow for greater control of grass and to ensure sheep are allocated to fresh high-energy swards. This, in turn, can increase performance as well as allowing for a higher stocking rate.

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