Reducing mud will bring better grass growth rates

Growth rates have dropped back this winter to perhaps more normal long-term averages, catching a few out: this and sodden soils make grass hard to utilise.

Soils are saturated and so it is hard not to make mud during rain. As hard as it feels, all efforts made to reduce mud will ultimately be rewarded with better pasture growth rates for the rest of the season. 

Here are a few basic pointers for reducing mud:

- Make pasture breaks square

- Set up supplements and breaks in advance

- Have bail-out options to drier paddocks where possible; be prepared to change halfway through a paddock to start a new paddock

- Move stock at daybreak

- Stand cows off on cowshed yard and/or feed pad

- Draft out springers and calving R2s that can be moved on in area in the evening if necessary.  The lates stood off

- Put cows to the back of paddocks first so if standing cows off they walk over the pasture, reducing soil damage (yes, some pasture will be sacrificed)

- Accept body condition score as it is now, and focus on conserving pasture with the correct round length and by feeding supplements.

In the first 90 days of the new season it is vital to feed all the different mobs so as to maximise the production and profitability of the farm. If this is not done properly, underfeeding can lead to poor milk production, high rates of body condition loss and poorer reproduction results.

To help avoid this, a spring rotation planner SRP) can help to keep you on the right track through the eight hectic weeks of calving. By using this simple tool you can relax knowing that you are in step with where you need to be at any given date from the planned start of calving to when feed supply matches feed demand.

The SRP does not get used to the same extent as in the past due to the steady intensification of farm systems where supplements are more often being fed through spring than they were 20 years ago.  For these farm systems, where no supplements are fed through the spring, if you manage your pasture poorly then you can quickly fall into a hole of low covers and underfed cows. 

Though greater use is now made of supplements in spring, the accurate management and allocation of pasture through the spring is still better practice as this helps ensure your cheapest source of feed (pasture) is not wasted.

A SRP allocates more area each day to be grazed from the start of calving from a winter round length (e.g. 90-100 days), through to when feed supply (pasture growth rate and supplements fed) matches cow demand. In the King Country this is usually mid-late September. 

At this stage you want to be on the round length that suits your stocking rate to maintain this round through October and November, which is usually about the 21-25-day mark.

At FarmWise we have a more detailed version of the SRP that puts in your calving rate and supplements available for feeding. This therefore allocates pasture and supplements more accurately to your dry and milking cow mobs, to ensure each mob is being fed at the correct rate.

If you haven’t used a SRP before, try one this year to get the best use of pasture and feed on farm, and enjoy the benefits of a more relaxed spring, and better feed management.

• Darren Sutton is a FarmWise consultant.