Farmer writes: letting nature do its thing with grass

We stopped lambing ewes on this farm in 2006 and this is my eighth season finishing store lambs.

But I don’t think I’ve seen my farm as bare of grass at this time of year, since we got out of the ewes. I don’t really know why.

Usually, a month or so after lambs would come off a piece of ground, I’d be able to see a slight pick of grass coming back, but that didn’t seem to happen as quickly this winter.

I don’t know if temperatures were lower or if we have had more rain, but up until a couple of weeks ago, this farm was as bare as I’ve seen it in almost 20 years.

Starting from a bare canvass can have advantages and disadvantages. Obviously, grass is much slower to get going in the spring, but when it does get going, you will be left with a much thicker and better-quality carpet of grass.

I used to focus very heavily on having plenty of early spring grass, but often found that although I had plenty of grass, I was potentially unable to graze it due to bad weather, or the years that I did manage to get out early, I could have to rehouse cattle again for the same reason.

Bare base

Now, there is no feed to compare with spring grass, so if you can grow it and utilise it, then that is most definitely what you should be doing.

But on this farm, it’s difficult to get cattle out much before the start of April, whether I have grass or not.

I’ve found that utilising my grass through the winter with store lambs, starting from a bare base, getting good slurry from finishing cattle on as early as possible and letting nature do its thing when the conditions allow, means I am still being fairly efficient.

It takes a while to get your eye adjusted to how much grass you actually have or the plate meter may need to be used, as the thick sole of grass will be much shorter than the normal sward that cattle farmers are used looking at.

But there is usually much less waste and it holds cattle up better due to its dense nature.

Much of the farm received slurry two weeks ago, things have started to green up but there isn’t much herbage available yet.

I will hopefully get some protected urea on in this incoming week and with a bit of luck, a rise in temperatures will drive things on.

The days are getting longer and if conditions allow a week can make a big difference at this time of year. Fingers crossed.