On-off grazing top tips
Friday, 2 October 2020
Use on-off grazing to let cows out to graze your driest paddocks and then brought straight back in once they have eaten their allocation. Follow these 5 top tips for successful on-off grazing:
- Ensure cows have an edge to their appetite e.g. don’t buffer feed just before turnout and aim to run out of silage in the trough about three hours before going out to graze, so they eat grass instead of damaging pasture.
- Remove cows from paddock just as they become full and looking to lie down
- Avoid putting freshly calved cows to grass as they can spend time pacing the paddock rather than eating.
- Any cows needing extra care (e.g. lame or thin cows) should be kept back and fed full ration inside.
- Be flexible!