The past 2-3 weeks has provided ideal conditions for dairy farming - high grass growth and utilisation, high cow performance and an increasing milk price. These conditions are set to continue for another two weeks at least – so while this gives reason to be buoyant, continued dry weather will raise more challenges.
In the past week growths rates have remained high ranging from 65-100+ kgDM/ha/day, and in practically all cases above demand on the farm. The continued dry spell is likely to reduce growth, therefore it is best to be a little more conservative and maintain a higher farm cover slightly than normal at this time. Again, your decision making process should be centred on the grass wedge. One way to be more conservative in this process is to lengthen the target rotation length. In the past 2-3 weeks most farmers would have targeted short rotations (17-19 days) to coincide with the high growth rates. It is now prudent to target a slightly longer rotation in anticipation of lower growth rates until more rain arrives. In the grass wedge this has the effect of raising the target pre-grazing cover and target line - therefore stimulating you to remove a smaller surplus if any existed at all.
It is evident from the farm walks this week that the swards are reverting back to vegetative stage. By now most of the reproductive tillers and seedheads have been removed thanks to your continuous tight grazing. These vegetative swards are extremely lush and high in digestibility and ME with little stem in the grazing horizon. They are also undergoing a bout of tillering so you should see a marked improvement in the density and ground cover of the swards. If we undergo a continued moisture deficit then unfortunately the plant will come under stress and some tillers will revert back to reproductive phase – bringing stem back in to the grazing horizon. This problem is exasperated in low nitrogen swards. Be sure to maintain the application of nitrogen even in these dry conditions – preferably spread in the evening at lower air and soil temperatures and before the night time dew to help it carry into the top layer of the soil.
When walking and measuring the grass on the farm be cognisant increasing dry matter levels as the dry spell continues. Morning time dry matters (after heavy dew) can be down as far as 14% especially in young grass or aftergrass. The same grass in the afternoon will have increased 2-3 units, with grass about to be grazed slightly high (18-20%).
