Why grass measuring is a new year's resolution worth keeping

The start of January is a time when people traditionally set out to make a change for the incoming year by making new year's resolutions.

The vast majority of people make resolutions that are both unrealistic and unsustainable, ie run a marathon, and these ultimately forgotten about after about three days.

However, there is one change which farmers should change that would turn their farms into better run operations and ultimately lead to greater financial rewards further down the line.

You can't manage what you don't measure.

Grass

The potential to achieve high levels of productivity from grazed grass gives Irish farmers a major competitive advantage over many of our European and global counterparts.

According to Teagasc, on average, the cost of producing 1kg of liveweight gain or 1kg of milk solids from grazed grass is 80% to 85% less when compared with an intensive concentrate-based system.

However, in order to take full advantage of our "natural resource", we must be able to measure how much grass is available at any one time and unfortunately the only way to do this is through grass measuring.

While there are no figures available for the 100,000 or so Irish grassland farmers who are measuring grass in Ireland currently, it is safe to say those who do are in the minority.

Measuring grass has a number of benefits which include:

With the grass growing season kicking off in the coming weeks on better-draining land, now is the perfect time to start measuring grass.

There are a number of different methods available (cutting and weighing, plate meter, etc) and buying equipment to get you started isn't expensive and there is even a grant available to get people started.

Your local adviser will also be more than happy to point you in the right direction should you need some advice.

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