Farmer Writes: first cattle go out to grass

The first batch of cattle are at grass for 2017.

How long they will get to stay there is anyone’s guess, but I’m going to be optimistic and hope for the best.

I didn’t really intend letting anything out yet, but I let a batch of heifers out of the shed last Friday so I could agitate a tank and I just never put them back in again.

Mid-February is very early to be letting out cattle this far north but ground conditions are ideal for grazing and with the mild winter I have a good cover of grass built up.

I’m grazing paddocks that I didn’t get grazed last November with a batch of bulls.

The weather ended up just too wet and I had to house all stock. There is probably six inches of grass on these paddocks and they are unlikely to grow much more until they are clipped off.

The amount of rainfall we’ve been having here over the last few years means ground is much drier now than it was for most of last summer, so I’m trying to make hay while the sun shines and graze the grass while I can.

Grazed spring grass is by far the highest-quality feed I have available to me now.

The batch of cattle that I turned out are last year’s heifers – anything not being retained for bulling. I usually sell these cattle in early May, so the more grass I can get into them, the more cheap weight gain I can take advantage of.

I had already cut meal off these cattle last week in preparation for turnout. I usually stop feeding meal three to four weeks pre-turnout to avail of compensatory growth. As I didn’t really intend letting these cattle out yet, I only stopped feeding last week, so there is the possibility they may fail slightly before they start to thrive.

Content cattle

So far, they are extremely content. Because of the unseasonably dry weather, the dry matter of the grass they are grazing is high and it is taking very little of it to fill them.

If grass utilisation and ground conditions stay as good as they are now, then I should have 10 to 12 days worth of grass in the field they are in at the minute. I am currently block grazing in two-day blocks to try and maximise utilisation.

If the weather does take a turn for the worst, which it undoubtedly will at some point, I won’t hesitate if I have to rehouse.

If conditions and your system allow, don’t be afraid to let cattle out to grass, rehousing is not a sign of failure.

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Farmer Writes: James Strain