Grazing Management

Grazing is very much at the heart of everything we do on the farm. Grazing management is given top-priority. Many people call what we do "Extended Grazing" as our grazing season is considerably longer than that of many "conventional" farms. However this is a term that I no longer prefer to use as it suggests a bolt on approach. Whereas the reality is that grass and its efficient utilisation by grazing is very much at the centre of everything we do and all other decisions revolve around this.

We consider an compact spring calving pattern the best way to utilise grazed grass. The idea being to match the energy requirement of the cows as closely as possible to grass growth. The cows would be dry during the housing period when silage is fed thus minimising the amount of silage needed. Unfortunately we are limited by the amount of land that is accessible to the milking cows for grazing. So we feel it necessary to have an autumn block which can be dried off in late summer and shipped to an out farm to decrease the stocking rate at home and keep the milking cows at grass for as long as possible and reduce the amount of silage needed.

Grazing must be placed first with silage only being made out of genuine surpluses. It is economic folly to make silage when grazed grass is in short supply. Also known as "Feeding silage to make silage".

Like any feeding regime grazed grass must be managed in such a way that the cows have enough dry matter intake to meet their nutritional requirements. This is a lot more challenging than feeding silage out of a clamp or ordering feed from a mill and requires careful management but it is much more rewarding. The problem is that grass growth varies not only seasonally but also due to weather changes and no two years are the same. The farmer needs to monitor the situation continually if he is to pre-empt any crisis.

Grazing Infrastructure

There are three main components essential to successful grazing especially when try to graze at the edges of the season.

Laneways - These enable the cows to graze the farthest reaches of the farm without damaging ground or getting dirty.
Electric Fencing - Essential to enable you to intensively graze a small area. Some of this will be permanent with the option available to subdivide paddocks or fields.
Water Troughs - Lactating cows need water if grazing for any length of time.

In order to extend the grazing season it is necessary to build up cover in late summer / early autumn.

This is done by:

Increasing grazed area (no late cuts of silage)
Taking any young stock away from the grazing block
On our farm due to the limited land area we dry off the autumn-calving block and ship them away to an out-farm
Increasing fertiliser usage

This enables the rotation to slow down. The grass is built up in a wedge (i.e. due to rotational grazing there will be a variety of grass covers on the farm). Some of this will be grazed in the late autumn and some saved for the spring. We try and leave as much cover as it is safe to do over the winter as grass is of far more benefit in the spring when cows are fresh calved than in the autumn. We will stop grazing before the average farm cover drops below 2000 kgDM/ha. Cows are buffer fed silage from late October and housed full time in late November / early December.

Daytime turnout will occur in mid-February. The cows are turned out for a few hours each day, the ground can be wet at this time of year and if that is the case it is important that they go out hungry and are brought in once they have finished grazing. In order to build up an appetite we will lock the cows out of the silage at bedtime the night before, so they go out with a good appetite. They then get a fill off silage once they return to the house.

As grass growth improves the cows are let out for longer and longer spells. Night time turnout occurred on 16th March this year. Another advantage of this system is that grazed grass is introduced in a gradual and controlled manner into the diet, avoiding nutritional shock and giving the rumen time to adjust.