The yearling cattle are at grass with almost a month at this stage on the Thrive demonstration farm. As they come to graze the last couple of paddocks in the first rotation, they are entering higher grass covers than we would have liked.

This is not too much of an issue at this stage of the year as there is no stem appearing in the base of the sward just yet.

The focus needs to be on achieving a good graze-out of these swards in order to reset the paddock for the next grazing rotation.

If you do not achieve a good graze-out in these heavier swards in this grazing, by the time cattle get around to grazing them again at the end of the second rotation stem will have started to build up in the sward.

This reduces the overall digestibility of the grass and as a knock-on effect, daily liveweight gains will be decreased.

With ground conditions improving across the country in recent days, will be able to make cattle work that bit harder in paddocks to achieve good graze-outs.