There has been a distinct movement to try and turn all producers who graze into hardcore plate meter wielding fanatics, which not everyone is. Now, if you have the inclination or interest in this area, then this is a sensible course to follow, but it’s important to recognise that this really isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.
Making use of what we grow on farm is always a great idea and doing it better is, well.. Better.. and certainly ticks the box when it comes to talking about sustainability (We are going to refer to this as “efficiency” from now on).
The important thing to remember here is that adopting one or two of below points will mean an improvement, you don’t have to go to the extremes to see a benefit.
What are the rewards
There are good returns to be had from
focusing on this, as illustrated in the
table below.
The benefits of using your grass better can be split into 2 key approaches:
- Maintaining current regime but include more grazing in the diet. (e.g challenge your buffer feeding and cake allocation).
- Include more grazing in the ration, but also incorporate a grazing management change.
Taking approach 1 we can see that average grazing has an advantage over silage in the diet of 1.7p/litre and 8.6p/litre over concentrates. This is especially relevant when we think about later lactation animals, which we are just filling up with buffer and cake. So these should be the main target when we are thinking about this approach.
Looking at approach 2, the key with this one is that you use more of the grass that you are growing. On most livestock farms growing grass isn’t usually the problem, yes reseeding does help, but utilisation of grass tends to be the limiting factor, and this is determined by how we graze it. Paddock systems tend to be the most effective at overcoming this, but again this doesn’t suit everybody. So below are a few key points that will make the job more effective.
- Back fence when strip grazing to protect regrowth.
- Daily allocation of fresh grazing to stimulate interest and intakes
- Give access to this fresh grazing after pm milking when grazing behaviour is strongest and grass sugars are highest.
- Plot a grass wedge chart on a weekly
basis to manage supply effectively
- anticipation is the art of good management.
- Ensure cows have to walk no further than 250 metres to get to water whilst at grass.
- Offer high yielders taller grass (e.g. 6in/ 15cm, but not overstood) to maximise intakes. If necessary tidy up the grass sward with lower production stock (or top).
- Don’t try and force fresh/high producing cows to clear up leys.
- Pre-mow rather than post-top fields.
Again the benefits here are clear in the table, but the cost to produce a litre from this type of grazed grass are half (or just over) that of silage and a quarter of that from concentrate.
Pitfalls
Ironically the biggest issue I tend to see out at grass is cows not getting enough food full stop. This is because we tend to overestimate the amount of grass that we put in front of cows. Many will be budgeting on taking 12kg of DM from grazing and there just isn’t the area allocated to achieve this. So it is imperative that a rough calculation is done to ensure that an adequate area has been given to the cows, especially when strip grazing.
The other downside of trying to push your milk from forage is that if you get it wrong by challenging your cows then it can have marked effects on milk qualities, outputs and fertility, so it is important to ease in to this with little steps rather than one big jump. It is also important to remember that when at grass you are asking an awful lot of your fresh cows, so supporting them is crucial, and you should have a plan of how you are going to do this whilst challenging your grass usage.
If you have any queries or questions on this topic please give me a ring, or speak to your feed advisor and they can arrange a visit.