Grass Groups

Setting Up a Grass Group

Standard Operating Procedure

Identify a group of farmers in your area that are interested in improving grassland management skills, grass production and utilisation on their farm. The group should be established in December/ January, before the grazing season commences. There is always a small number of discussion group members from a number of discussion groups who would come together to form a grass group- this has been the experience of many advisors who have succeeded in setting up grass groups.
Set up each farmer on PastureBase Ireland in December/January. Contact PBI support (0469200965) to set up farmers that need to be registered.
Arrange the first group meeting in January. The agenda should be to:

outline the purpose of the group and how measuring grass can increase efficiency/profitability at farm level
Show the farmers how to use the basic tools on PastureBase Ireland
Show the farmers how to share their data with other farmers by sending invitations to each other. All links should be established during this meeting.
Get each farmer to set up a spring rotation planner and feed budget (dairy).
If farmers are not confident measuring grass in the field, the facilitator should then bring them on a grass walk and show farmers how to calculate covers in the field.

The facilitator should make contact with each farmer to make sure that they will carry out an opening cover and provide them with sufficient support to be able to do this.
A WhatsApp group is also useful to support farmers and answer queries.
From there, organise a monthly meeting with the group. The host farmer and farmers attending should have grass measurements taken prior to the meeting. The facilitator should visit the host farmer prior to the meeting to see decisions being made at farm level. A group report should be ran on PastureBase and handed out to farmers. Check the dry matter on www.pbi.ie prior to any meetings (twitter feed or research farms)
Topics of discussion at every meeting should be:

Average farm cover, cover/LU, days ahead
Growth vs Demand (supplement, stocking rate)
Pre grazing yields this should be cut and weighed with a quadrant and shears: e.g. 0.175kg X 20%DM X 40,000= 1400 kgDM/ha target during main grazing season)
Residuals (implications of undergrazing and over grazing) -The post grazing height should be measured with a platemeter to determine the residual and grazing severity
Production levels (kgMS/cow, performance of calves/lambs etc.)
Spring rotation plan/ autumn rotation plan (shoulders of the year)
Grazing Infrastructure, soil fertility/ N application, reseeding
Any other business

Recommendations should be given for both the host farmer and group members at the end of each meeting based on current performance (use a flip chart).
An end of year meeting should take place in December reflecting on year gone by and plans for year ahead. Annual tonnage reports, planners, feed budgets, production levels, cost of production etc. should be discussed and targets set for year ahead.

Setting Up a Grass Group to Measure Grass (PDF print verison)

To Run a Discussion Group Meeting on Grass

Standard Operating Procedure

The advisor makes contact with a suitable farmer to host the meeting. A date and time should be arranged to suit the host farmer, group members and facilitator. The facilitator should make sure that the host farmer has a map of the grazing platform of the farm ready for the farm visit prior to the meeting.
Once a host farmer, date and time is established for the meeting, an invitation should be sent out to the group members. This should include time, date and purpose of the meeting.
The facilitator should make contact with all farmers to make sure that they have carried out a grass measurement and filled in an input sheet for the meeting (phone-call, WhatsApp message etc.)
The facilitator should visit the host farmer 1- 2 days prior to the meeting to carry out a grass measurement and to see the decisions being made at farm level. The facilitator should look at the PastureBase wedge/criteria, pre-grazing yields, residuals, fertiliser programme, paddock layout etc. The facilitator should study the map of the grazing platform and bring it back to the office.
A handout should be made with the map of the farm, background, current performance of the farm, PastureBase report for the host farmer, PastureBase group report containing all group members & Grass10 newsletter.
Check the dry matter on pbi.ie prior to meeting (twitter feed or research farms)
The facilitator should meet the farmers, go down and look at the livestock to see current grazing practice. Grazing infrastructure and grass quality should be discussed.
The facilitator should then take the farmers to the paddock where livestock will go next. A cut and weigh grass measurement should be carried out to determine the pre-grazing yield. Discussion of the pre grazing yield should take place.
The group should then attend the paddock that was last grazed on the farm. The post grazing height should be measured with a platemeter to determine the residual and grazing severity. Discussion should take place (target 4cm during main grazing season).
Topics of discussion at every meeting should be:

Average farm cover, cover/LU, days ahead
Growth vs Demand (supplement, stocking rate)
Pre grazing yields (this should be cut and weighed with a quadrant and shears: e.g. 0.175kg X 20%DM X 40,000= 1400 kgDM/ha target during main grazing season)
Residuals (implications of undergrazing and over grazing) (target 4cm)
Production levels (kgMS/cow, performance of calves/lambs etc.)
Spring rotation plan/ autumn rotation plan (shoulders of the year)
Grazing Infrastructure, soil fertility/ N application, reseeding
Any other business

After studying the host farmers PBI performance, pre-grazing yield & residuals, a conclusion should be reached and recommendations should be made to the farmer from the group members E.g. reduce meal levels, cut bales etc. A flip chart is useful for this discussion
After analysing the group report and the group members average farm cover, cover/Lu etc. a recommendation should be established for the group e.g. Our average cover/LU is 200kgDM/LU on July 1^st. We should be targeting 160-180kgDM/LU. We should cut surplus bales to maintain grass quality and maximise utilisation.

To Run a Discussion Group Meeting on Grass (PDF print version)