Forage for Knowledge

What stays the same?

The main drivers of profit are still utilisation and cost of production and thankfully they work in unison, with arguably utilisation leading the way.

When you increase grass utilised per hectare:

• Cows stay at grass longer
• A bigger proportion of their diet is grazed grass
• Feed and housing (concrete) costs fall

This applies to all grazed forages (grass and clover, herbal leys, summer crops or fodder beet). More utilisation means lower costs, which will remain a running theme through my comments this year.

What’s different this year?

It’s a lot wetter than last spring, making utilisation harder but not impossible unless your paddocks are still flooded.

Milk prices are also lower, intensifying the cost of production and grass utilisation drive.

This spring is the time to challenge your grass, your cows and yourself.

Growth update

For this first report, I have 11 growth and average cover sets and 2 grass samples – metabolizable energy (ME), crude protein (CP) and dry matter (DM).

Growth ranges from 1.2 to 46 kg DM/ha as of 3 March.  Most farms are in the high teens and low twenties, with a good spread across the country.

The biggest factor on grass growth this time of year is temperature (air and soil). Lighter, drier soils will be warmer than heavier, wet soils.

I tested soil temperature on a farm near Crediton in Devon last week and it was 9.3°C. Grass starts growing at 5°C and at 10°C it’s worth considering nitrogen.

But remember:

• It needs to be 10°C at 10 cm depth for five days in a row, measured between 8:00am and 10:00am
• In most cases, graze heavier covers first before applying nitrogen
• Growth starts to rapidly increase around mid-March (maybe slightly earlier in the south compared to the north of the country)

Average farm cover (AFC)

AFC ranges from 1,850 to 2,979 kg DM/ha, with strong average covers above 2,400:

• Growth is about to take off
• Graze heavier covers in drier conditions
• Don’t chase grass that has overly heavy covers (2,800–3,100)
• If you won’t graze it properly, cut and bale in April
• Always hit residuals

Your best tools for decision making are a feed budget and spring rotation planner; good grass management is both science and art.

If covers are low (1,850) the target should be nearer 2100–2200.

If you graze too early:

• You risk hindering growth and AFC through to late spring/early summer
• Tonnes grown per hectare will suffer

For example, a 100 kg difference in AFC will affect growth. A 2,000 kg DM/ha AFC would be 7 kg DM/ ha less growth than an AFC of 2,100 kg DM/ha, due to more of the platform being at 1–2 leaf stage compared to the higher AFC with more at the 3-leaf stage, the biggest leaf!

Grass quality

Two samples show:

• DM:19.5% and 18.1%
• CP: 25.5% and 26.4%
• ME: 12.7 and 12.2

This is absolute rocket fuel, exactly what I would expect, having seen hundreds of samples on Forage for Knowledge going back to 2009.

Time to challenge grass, cows, concentrates and yourselves. What will this quality do for you? High levels of concentrate at grass disrupt grazing behaviour, resulting in reduced grass quality in later rounds.

With milk prices down (there might be good calf and cull cow income, but that is only 10% +/- 2% of output), now is the time to challenge yourself.

For energy requirements, refer to AHDB Forage First Guide (pages 25–26). Protein is not limited by grass.

The potential is there; can you realise it?