16 February, 2017
Allocating grazed grass this spring
Many farms are in the middle of calving at the moment, and once cows are calved the best place for them is outside even if it’s just for a few hours each day. But we’re faced with two challenges during this period, feeding the cow adequately and managing available grass.
Freshly calved dairy cows have low dry matter intakes (DMI) -a crossbred cow will require 9-10kg/DM/day. Intakes will increase by 1kg per week thereafter and should peak at around 8 weeks post calving which coincides with the beginning of the breeding period. Concentrate fed must be subtracted from the cows predicted DMI to calculate a grass dry matter requirement.
If we allocate the right amount of grass during this first rotation we will train cows to tightly graze and this in turn will improve grass quality in the following rotations. Grass demand will be low for the first two weeks of calving and it is easier to graze paddocks with lighter covers first.
Cows should be going onto fresh grass after each milking and post grazing residuals should be closely monitored to maintain the desired 3.5 cm post grazing height.
Check the daily grass growth rates in your area with our grass growth map
