Grass Growth update 27-6-14
An Excellent 2nd Cut Tantallon Grass being mown on the 17th June, this was direct drilled last Sept (13)
Its been like a greenhouse this week and Grass growth flies
Grass hits a average of 100 kg/Dm /Day
Grass Growth slows down as we hit June
This is the grass growth curve for a number of Dairy units in the Lancashire/Cumbria
Grass Growth hits Magic day
With grass growth hitting rates of 75kg/DM/day in Lancashire, we need to focus on grass management, if we let grass grow too far a head of cows we will struggle to maintain quality during the rest of the grazing year.
Key points
Make sure cows graze down the paddocks to residue of 1500-1700 kg/DM/Ha
Turn cattle into fields of roughly 3000-3200 kg, if they getting towards 4000 kg, then make the decision to take these fields out off the grazing platform for now, and cut this field for silage.
Graze at 3 leaf stage
Consider the dry matter of grass at grazing when it comes too feeding the high yielding cows, they may not be getting the required amount of dry matter
Don’t forget the magnesium levels in the diet.
Grass protein is recording 24-27% at present which is a great driver for milk production from grass.
With soil temperature’s of 10-11 degrees we can see grass growth only going one way at present and that is upwards
Cows are out
 With grass growth hitting the 33kg/dm/day mark this week , we have seen some dairy cows out during the day time, grass quality is obviously variable at present but we do know that the protein levels are around the 24-26 % mark.
Good cow tracks are key to early grazing they allow fields to be grazed with good covers earlier in the spring and later in the autumn , tracks are never a investment that is regretted
Grass growth Charting this years growth
This is the grass growth curve for 2014 (in red) , compared with predicted. results to date are up to early March 2014, Early March growth rate is running at approx. 5 kg/DM/Day.