Grass measuring: we have to do better

According to the Teagasc national farm survey, there are 84,448 livestock farms in the country – that’s 84,448 farmers who could be measuring grass. Taking away the 16,146 dairy farms, 68,302 or 81% of these farms are drystock (cattle rearing, cattle other and sheep).

Alarmingly though, most recent figures show that there are only 541 drystock farmers measuring grass on PastureBase Ireland. That’s just 0.79% of drystock farms.

PastureBase Ireland administrator Micheal O’Leary says “drystock farmers make up just 5% of PastureBase’s users”. So to put this into context, drystock farmers account for 80% of the farms that should be measuring, yet only 5% of the farms that actually do measure.

And it gets worse – 541 is only the number of drystock farms that have recorded one or more grass cover in 2019. In reality, to say a farm is actively measuring grass, it would need to have at least 20 grass covers completed. Going back to the latest statistics, only 98 farmers carried out 20 or more grass covers last year. That means that, of the 68,302 drystock farms in Ireland, just 0.14% of those are actively measuring grass. As a sector, we have to do better.

Production

Focusing in on beef farms, on the farms that measured over 20 times in 2019, annual grass production was 9,900kg DM/ha – 7,279kg DM/ha of grazed grass and 2,621kg DM/ha of silage production (Table 1).

Unsurprisingly, this figure was up 7% from the 9,231kg DM/ha grown in 2018. On average, these farms recorded 4.6 grazings and 0.7 cuts of silage per paddock.

While the low number of farms in the sample decreases the accuracy of averages, Donegal was the most productive county, recording a total of 13,771kg DM/ha in 2019.

In descending order, Longford, Sligo, Kildare and Galway complete the top five. Offaly was bottom of the ranking with 8,542kg DM/ha. The most significant aspect of these results, however, is the fact that grass measuring is clearly working for the beef farmers who use it.

Nationally, the average annual grass production on drystock farms is estimated to be in the region of 5,000kg to 6,000kg DM/ha. Those who are taking the time to measure are growing almost double that.

Invaluable

Grass measuring isn’t going to single-handedly grow more grass and increase utilisation on your farm. If you want to grow more grass, the first step is soil fertility. Then it’s infrastructure – more specifically, paddocks. But, let’s face it, there are certainly more than 98 drystock farmers well set in terms of soil fertility and infrastructure. And the next step for these is grass measuring.

The added value through growing more grass can only be realised if it’s used properly. The benefit of grass measuring is the information it offers for decision-making. Weekly budgeting and management decisions during grazing season can be based on concrete information such as the farm cover, growth rate, demand and days ahead.

You can respond in time to scenarios such as too much grass or, worse again, too little, before it actually happens. In the slightly longer-term, grass measuring is the only way you can hit the different grazing targets and average farm cover targets during the spring, summer and autumn. And then there’s the annual reports. Do you know what the worst-performing field/paddock on your farm was? If you weren’t measuring, then probably not. Annual growth reports should be the basis for any reseeding plan.

Value

You can start measuring grass for minimal cost. For a start, access to PastureBase Ireland is free to all Teagasc clients. All as you need then is the equipment to measure grass. The most common method is the plate meter and these start at around €400 per unit. The other option is the cut and weigh method.

A shears, quadrat and weighing scales can be purchased for around €200. On average, grass measuring is a half-day’s work once a week.

The new PastureBase Ireland app provides the opportunity to shave a lot of time off the job, however.

But farmers also have to start thinking about the added value that grass measuring can bring. The most common figure used is €105 – Teagasc estimates that every extra tonne of grass DM/ha utilised is worth €105/ha on drystock farms.

On top of that, every extra day at grass in the spring is worth about €2.80/LU and in the autumn it’s worth about €1.80/LU – all through reductions in feed costs.

With the margins getting tighter and tighter on beef farms, grass measuring and, ultimately, growing and utilising more grass needs to be seen as cost beneficial.

Ask yourself – can you afford not to be measuring grass next year?

The best way to start grass measuring is through a discussion group. Farmers can learn together and they will push each other which, in turn, keeps motivation and determination high. The Irish Farmers Journal grass course – facilitated by livestock specialist Stephen Connolly – is running once again in 2020 and is available to drystock and dairy farmers. This year-long course will teach you how to measure grass, how to understand the figures and how to improve your overall grass management skills. Contact Stephen at sconnolly@farmersjournal.ie or phone 087-669 6490. Teagasc, through the Grass10 programme, also provides courses to help farmers to start measuring grass.