Early indications are that the wet, windy and cold weather we’re currently experiencing will be replaced by milder weather by the middle of next week.

In my book, this means that grass growth should start to ramp up dramatically by next weekend.

Now, it’s still early to be making predictions and the lift in temperatures isn’t that dramatic, but it is still a very positive signal.

Act early

When grass growth changes, farmers need to act early, otherwise pasture quality will get away from them.

These actions include removing extra supplement from the diet, whether that’s a lot of extra meal or silage.

Other things farmers must do to control grass quality is to skip over paddocks that are gone too heavy for grazing and focus on paddocks with lighter covers of leafy grass.

This will improve animal performance and ensure quicker regrowth.

Fertiliser

Next weekend is the middle of April, which is the latest time for most farmers to close up and fertilise silage ground.

For grazing ground, applying 0.8 to one unit of nitrogen per day every three to four weeks for the next few weeks will optimise grass growth and allow for more area to be closed for silage.

The next few weeks are going to be critical in ensuring that there is sufficient fodder available nationally for all the livestock in the country.