Grazing Musketeers Consultancy
“grass measurement, budgeting, management……”
Overview
The Grazing Musketeer Consultancy was initiated in 2006 with the support of FBD Trust, to provide a service to 14 dairy farmers across Ireland, its primary aim to improve grassland measurement and management techniques. The program, spearheaded by Gary Nolan, focused on the three main areas of grass measurement, feed budgeting and management.
The program involves regular farm walks to establish the average farm cover, which is inputted into the Teagasc grass budgeting program and then it is decided how best to manage the grass supply of the herd until the next farm walk. The program continues to service the core Grazing Musketeer group, it is now coordinated by PhD graduate and Grasstec consultant, Noel Gowen. The program is now being expanded to service the wider dairy industry in Ireland.
Objectives :
The objectives of this grazing musketeer project are as follows:
- To provide a cutting edge grazing consultancy service to Irish dairy farmers.
- To create awareness of the latest techniques for grassland management and to facilitate knowledge transfer between the Grazing Musketeers group, Teagasc and the wider dairy industry.
- To establish grazing systems on each participant farm that will maximise the intake of highly digestible grazed grass throughout the grazing season. This will facilitate a level of milk solids production at lower input costs.
- To establish grazing systems on participant farms which will maximise output per hectare and, where applicable, increase of cow numbers and stocking rate.
The service consists of regular visits (generally every two weeks) by the consultant to the participant’s farm where the three steps of measurement, budgeting and management are put into action. The service is also available to dairy discussion groups who nominate a host farmer willing to adopt best grazing management practise.
Measurements
Sward Measurements
The following sward measurements will be collected on-farm.
- Paddock cover (Kgs DM/ha) on each paddock to determine Average Farm Cover.
- Dry matter, dry matter digestibility, metabolisable energy, and crude protein of paddocks ready to be grazed.
- Pre & post grazing sward height on the paddock next to be grazed and paddock just grazed, respectively.
- Post – grazing yield on freshly grazed paddocks.
- Grass growth – as the difference between the cover of un-grazed paddocks between measurement days.
Animal Measurements
The following animal measurements are recorded on-farm by the farmer and the consultant where applicable.
- Milk Yield
- Milk Solids
- Protein %
- Fat %
- Body Condition Score
- Liveweight (if available)
Other Measurements
The farmer will be required to keep accurate recordings of the following:
- Fertiliser & Slurry inputs
- Concentrate & Silage inputs
- Paddock rotation sequence, residency period and rotation length
Budgeting
The feed budget is the most important farm management tool that is used during spring and throughout the grazing season. It takes into account the main factors that allow us to match grass supply with demand.
All relevant information is gathered and inputted to the Teagasc budgeting program to create a feed budget for the farm. Goals are set for the grazing platform at key times of the year and the feed budget is established to outline the sequence of events that must take place to achieve such goals. Critical to an accurate feed budget are; an accurately predicted calving spread; stocking rate; dry matter intake and grass growth rate.
Using the feed budget we can operate very successful backward planning which allows us to hit key targets, for example the ideal closing cover in the Autumn to facilitate early turnout and subsequent reduction in concentrate costs.
Management
The use of sward measurement and budgeting techniques listed, allows for informative decisions to be made with regard to the day-to-day and week-to-week management of the grazing platform. Management must be flexible to accommodate fluctuations in the growing season due to irregular weather conditions and the subsequent low growth and poor grazing conditions. The evaluation of measurement and budgeting over a number of grazing seasons will also allow us to make informed decisions regarding the future direction of the farm, for example, potential for increased stocking rate, optimum calving date for grass supply and growth, and reseeding strategy.