Green shoots but little more! – Thankfully there has been a considerable improvement in the colour and growing state of swards across the country. Growth rates in the past week have ranged from 10-20 kgDM/ha/day, yet there is a clear distinction as to the reason for farms on both ends of the scale – that distinction is soil temperature. Many colder farms or even individual paddocks on farms are struggling to reach growth rates in double figures. The growth of white clover on farm can be used as a sort of a soil thermometer at this time of the year, as clover requires a soil temperature of 9-10 degrees to grow. Watch the growth of your clover – if it is now green and growing then you can be confident that soil temperatures are above 9 degrees and corresponding grass growth will remain strong. If your clover is still dormant then soil temperatures are too low and corresponding grass growth will also remain low.
Your grassland management should be focussed on your grass budget between now and the end of April and also your rotation plan. Average farm cover across the country remains low and generally ranges from 300 kgDM/ha to 450 kgDM/ha. For the next two weeks the plan should be to hold farm cover by reducing demand to correspond with the predicted growth. Many farmers are suggesting a predicted growth of 15-20 kgDM/ha for the coming week due to a continuation of the current weather conditions. Therefore demand must also stay low. In most cases this demand is lowered by the feeding of high levels of concentrate and silage. While these feeds are necessary, silage in the diet is having a detrimental effect on milk protein %’s. Grass growth will increase and the requirement for silage and concentrate will lessen – be sure to monitor your grass supply and growth closely and be sure to removed silage from the diet at the earliest opportunity.
With regard to the rotation plan – it is still advisable to delay the beginning of the second rotation 7-10 days than originally planned. With the recent increase in grass growth should this advice change? The rotation plan should be flexible to allow for change in grass supply and growth rates. Probably the best way to gauge whether you should stay on the rotation plan or “speed it up” is to examine how strong the first grazed paddocks are. There is a big range in this regard across farms from 200-550 for paddocks grazed in the first week of February. Those on the bottom end of the scale should remain on a rotation plan that allows for the 2nd rotation to begin circa 12th April at the earliest. For those on the higher end of the scale there it may be beneficial to re-adjust the plan for an earlier 2nd rotation provided that the farm continues to be active and growing.
My previous update outlined the high dry matter level in the grass through the dry period. In some cases this was up to 30%+ especially in the pastures with a lot of dead material. Most of these pastures have been grazed off so be mindful of the now lower DM of grass when clipping and weighing. Curtins DM was estimated to be approximately 20% last Monday morning and was slightly wet to touch.
Finally, most farmers are grumbling about the current low protein % in the milk. This can be directly related the presence of silage in the diet. As mentioned previously grazing conditions over the past 6 weeks were conducive to low grazing residuals – 0-50kgDM/ha even after strong pre-grazing covers. These low residuals are excellent preparation for the establishment of a leafy high ME sward down to 3cm in the next rotation and through the Summer. Please, please don’t undo all the good grazing work that you have done up to now by under-grazing with a high residual in the next rotation.
