Planning now for early Spring grass
Where does time go? As we enter the final third of the year and the final few weeks of the grazing season, now is the ideal time to put a plan in place to have high quality grass available for your stock next spring.
It is impossible to predict what the weather and ground conditions will be like next February and early March for grazing, but the one certainty is that you will have plenty of stock available to take advantage of high quality grass if it is available.
Having this grass available is the responsibility of each individual farmer to ensure that if the weather and ground conditions are favourable early next spring that there is grass there to graze. “It is better to be looking at the grass in the spring rather than looking for it”.
Traditionally, very little growth occurs between November and February, therefore in order for grass to be available for grazing in February/early March it must be grown this October. For that reason, each year the grassland management calendar starts in the autumn.
The closing date of paddocks and how they are grazed out in the months of October and November will have a direct effect on the amount of grass available on your farm next February and March. The autumn rotation planner is a key tool used during the last grazing rotation. The plan must be to close up a set amount of the farm each week until the whole grazing area is closed and animals housed.
The paddocks to be closed first in the autumn should be the paddocks/fields that will be grazed first in the spring. These fields are generally the driest, most sheltered and closest to the yard. The autumn grassland planner is based on a 60:40 rule of thumb, where 60% of the total farm area should be closed by the 7th November or one to two weeks earlier on wetter farms. A consistent amount should be closed each week up to the 7th November. When calculating your target areas, ensure to include all lands to be grazed in the spring, including silage ground that will be grazed before closing for silage.
If you start closing ground on the week of the 10th October, you have 4 weeks, to achieve your 60% target, therefore 15% of ground should be closed each week. The remaining 40% should be closed from the 7th November to housing.
The idea is that when all paddocks are closed by early December that there would be a range of grass covers on the farm from grazed out (4cm) to 8/9cm. This would give an average farm cover of around 6/7cm which equates to 500 – 600 kgs of dry matter per hectare. This will be the grass that will be available next spring before the growth starts.
Current Dairy Beef 500 farmer Pat Collins, has approx. 130 acres grassland for grazing next spring. In order to have 60% (78 acres) of this grazed by 7th November he will need to close 15% (20 acres) of his farm each week if he starts closing fields from the week of the 10th October.
Fields were identified to meet these targets. Paddocks 2, 4 and 8 are good dry fields close to the house and yard that could be grazed early next spring. These will be the first closed giving 21 acres. Stock will graze them out tight to have good quality grass growing from the base.
During the second week, reseeded ground will be tightly grazed off and closed. Again this is solid land down the road from the home farm.
As we move into the second half of October it is important to get heavier lands grazed out before the real depths of winter set in. For this reason, Pat as identified the lower fields as the next paddocks to graze out. These fields are slightly heavier type soils and if the weather breaks they would be slightly more difficult to graze out properly. The paddocks on the out farm will then be grazed in the first week of November. This is dry ground and is further away from the yard.
The remaining 40% (52 acres) will be grazed out between the 7th November and housing. Depending on weather a number of animals may have been housed by now and this area can be covered younger lighter stock.
E.g.: Pat Collins, Dairy Beef 500 farmer with 130 acres of grassland starting to close paddocks on the week of 10th October
| Dates | %/week | Target area to close per week | Field name/number | Actual area grazed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 10th – 17th | 15% | 20 acres | Paddocks 2, 4 & 8 | 21 acres |
| Oct. 18th – 24th | 15% | 20 acres | Reseeded fields | 18 acres |
| Oct. 25th – 31st | 15% | 20 acres | Lower fields | 19 acres |
| Nov. 1st – 7th | 15% | 20 acres | Out farm | 20 acres |
| Total by 7th Nov. | 60% | 80 acres | 78 acres |
Grazing out paddocks too fast
If you are ahead of the target areas to be grazed, extra stock may need to be housed earlier than was planned or if ground conditions allowed you could offer supplementary feeding at grass. Heavier cattle should be housed first if ground conditions deteriorate.
Grazing out paddocks too slowly
If you are grazing too little area to meet the targets, then the rotation needs to be sped up, this can be done by grazing some of the lighter covers first in order to get the required area grazed off.
Key points
- Start closing from 10th October
- Graze fields/paddocks out tight, to ensure that new grass is fresh from the base
- Meet the target areas per week, if not the grass won`t have enough time to grow
- Even if great weather in mid-November, don't be tempted to graze fields that are now closed over a month and have nice covers on them.
This article first appeared in the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Campaign newsletter. Click here for more information from the campaign and to sign up to future newsletters.