GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT ▶▶▶
Ensuring repeat grass growth is essential
Managing grasslands can be a complex task for dairy farmers and is mostly influenced by the country they are in and the climate there. Some farmers opt to keep cows out all year round and take advantage of the cow being able to feed herself and dispose of her own manure, reducing the overall costs of production.
BY CHRIS MCCULLOUGH O
“Managing grass is all about strik- ing a balance,” says Kathryn George, a dairy development adviser at CAFRE.
ther farmers in hotter climates, or indeed wetter, choose to keep the herd indoors and haul fresh grass or alternatives to the livestock housing to feed them and then haul away the manure, which
has higher costs. It could be argued that farmers who manage their herds us- ing both these scenarios during a year are getting the bene- fits of both practices, but in the end it all comes down to grass availability and repeat growth. However, today’s dairy farmer has a bit more to keep in mind when managing the grass growth programme on their farm, as they also have to consider carbon sequestration in the plans.
UK and Ireland grow good grass levels Due to their moderate climates, the UK and Ireland are recognised as two of the major dairy-producing regions that can grow good grass levels. Based on this, a lot of research has been carried out there on the best practices farmers can adopt to ensure their farms are producing the grass required. Across the northern hemisphere farmers are already well into the 2021 grass growing season, but poor early growth rates have set some farms weeks behind due to the colder and wetter spring. This has also affected the silage season, with contractors reporting the first cuts were on average three weeks later than usual in some regions. Research at Northern Ireland’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) has looked at the various num- bers farmers need to know to ensure grass production levels are optimum. Kathryn George is one of the dairy development advisers at CAFRE who has carried out a great deal of work on managing grasslands. George says: “Managing grass is all about striking a balance between a number of key metrics – including grass growth,
8 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 3, 2021
PHOTO: CHRIS MCCULLOUGH
PHOTO: PICASA
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