Make most of grass
How this grass is grazed out in spring will directly affect the next two to three grazing rotations, so it is crucial that it is managed properly.
There are three scenarios to avoid, according to a Teagasc Todays Farm magazine article by Pearse Kelly of the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Programme.
* Turning stock out too late: this could happen where there is still plenty of silage, and animals are not left out until the second half of March or later — making it difficult to graze all silage area before it is closed up.
With grass growth rising into April, the last grazing fields will be very heavy, with the grass quality dropping by the day.
Responding by under-grazing to speed up the rotation leaves the quality of re-growths on the next few rotations significantly reduced.
This is the most common early grazing problem on beef farms. And with extra covers of grass this spring, there are likely to be even more falling into this trap.
* Another scenario to avoid is turning a lot of stock out at the same time, for example, around mid-March. There can be a huge demand for grass. It may look like there is a lot of grass on the farm, but it can be eaten very quickly, especially if the weather turns very wet and fields of grass are soiled. You can be back quickly to your first grazed field, which will have had very little time to re-grow. Farmers in this situation often have no choice but to rehouse stock until grass covers re-build.
* Turning out too early must also be avoided. If the first rotation begins too early, it can often end too early. Like the previous situation, there may be little or no grass to go back to. If the rotation ends in the middle of March, there is unlikely to be much grass, because reasonable growth figures are not seen on a lot of farms until early to mid-April.
The spring rotation planner is a grassland management tool for avoiding these three problem scenarios.
It works on the basis that a percentage of your farm needs to be grazed by certain dates, so that some fields are rested for enough re-growth.
Steps involved are:
* Estimate when you think there is enough grass (with the silage ground closed) to meet the demand of all the stock on the farm (in the southern counties, this will usually occur around Apr 10 — this is the date your first grazing rotation will end).
* On an early grass farm, work back 60 days, and on a later farm, come back 50 days. This is the date that your first rotation for 2012 will be starting — Feb 10, for example.
* Divide the first rotation into about three equal time periods — for example, 20 days in each, and 20% should be grazed by the first target date, 40% by the second and the remaining 60% by the last. For example, a 50 hectare farm in the south might target 10 hectares grazed between Feb 10 and the end of February; 10 hectares from early March to Mar 20; and 30 hectares from Mar 20 to Apr10.
In this example, the first 10 hectares grazed has a long rest period until it is grazed again on Apr 11.
It is important that the first 20% is not silage ground, because this will be closed up by the time the second rotation starts. Ideally, the silage ground should be grazed in the middle of the first rotation, so that it is closed up in time for slurry/fertiliser applications in late March/early April.
