Tight first grazing pays dividends

A farmer has 30 suckler cows and their calves to turn out, along with all their calves from last year (yearlings).

He is farming in Co Laois on 28 hectares of mostly dry grassland.

The first five hectares for grazing from Feb 10 to Feb 29, is all-year-round grazing ground, close enough to sheds for re-housing if the weather turns very wet. It is also the first area closed up last October — so it has the heaviest covers of grass. He has almost three weeks to graze it, starting with yearlings on Feb 10.