LIC highlights successful strategies to combat the effects of drought
Dry conditions may allow an early turnout for some dairy producers, Aly Balsom speaks to Mike Bailey from LIC to find out how farmers should be best managing grassland.
Q: Has drought been an issue on some of the farms you have visited? If so where in the country was this and what problems could it bring?
A: “Drought in 2011 was an issue for clients in the Central Midlands, Staffordshire and areas of Shropshire plus some areas in the Somerset region.
Grazing farms focusing on costs of production will try to rely almost entirely on grass especially through the summer when cow demand is typically less than grass growth. Drought puts this regime under severe pressure and farmers are forced into the market to source additional feed to get through these periods.”
Q: What can dairy producers do to mitigate any drought problems?
A: A summer drought meeting run by LIC in 2011 to highlight successful strategies put in place by farmers to mitigate the effects of drought suggested the following protocols in the event of a seriously dry summer:
1. Consider having 60 days’ summer feed on hand at a level, which minimises the requirement for grazed pasture over that period.
2. Push the system harder with nitrogen to get the above buffer
3. Know exactly what forage you need. Summer and winter requirements.
4. Keep nitrogen going at least as long as the sward is green.
5. Use safety fields. Don’t cut all your silage at once, have something up your sleeve to graze for short term deficits.
6. Round lengths should be around 40 days. The longer the round the more you will grow. But no advantage going longer than 40.
7. Dirty water saved and used strategically on fertile deep soils, where you will get a response.
8. Consider your grass species carefully, look into proven dry-land mixes
9. Planned use of Chickory either in a sward or as a monoculture
10. More reseeding. Get the soil right, aeration etc.
11. Ensure the indices are up. Recovery was better on more fertile soils
12. Summer forage crops. Turnips
Q: We are also hearing that in some areas of the country, producers are witnessing an early spring with excellent grass growth – have you seen this and if so where?
Figures for the week commencing 27 February on grazing farms visited with a good fertiliser history and typically having applied 40kg of nitrogen within the last three weeks are:
• Midlands 8.8 degrees Celsius at 10.00am 12 kg DM/ha a day.
• South East 9.8 degrees Celsius at 10.00am 12 kg DM/ha a day
• South West 10.5 degrees Celsius at 10.00am 15 kg DM/ha a day
Ground temperature is three degrees better than at the same time last year with growth variable from farm to farm, but looking to be two to three weeks ahead of the same time last year and typically growing at 5kg DM/ha/day better than the same time last year.
Although we’ve just gone through a couple of weeks of no growth and we are still getting light ground frosts, it is pointing to a better-than-normal spring.
A warm dose of rain shortly will accentuate the current good situation.
Q: Could producers be turning out early?
Growth is not only better than expected, but ground conditions are very good for grazing. Pressure can be applied to achieve good residuals without the worry of poaching.
Q: How/when should producers be assessing pastures to see whether turn out is possible
Cows should already be out. Assessing pastures is about measuring the pre-grazing covers, and putting your cows into the best quality grass you have. This will be those paddocks with covers of 2,600-2,800 kg DM/Ha, covers higher than this will typically have a greater stem to leaf ratio and have more dead matter in the base.
Grazing stimulates growth after a long period of winter inactivity. As long as ground conditions are good enough to carry your cows they should be on that ground and grazing. If you have had sheep on and covers are not that high get them out anyway and allow your cows to graze your longest covers.
Target 5-6kg of dry matter to start with and use a fence to allocate grass and ensure you backfence as well.
Plan the first grazing round to finish early April. This is typically when grass growth equals cow demand.
Q: What potential effect could it have on the grazing season moving forward if grass is not grazed effectively early on?
A: If done, the first round of grazing properly sets up the grazing season. Firstly it ensures your cows are trained to achieve the results you want and secondly you set the residual which will ensure the best possible quality going forward.
The target residual should be 1,500kgDM/ha. This is about the height of a golf ball. If you cannot find a golf ball in a paddock after the cows have finished grazing then they haven’t taken it down low enough.
Holsteins not used to grazing down should still look to achieve and pass the cricket ball test with less than 10% clumps and all clumps at least having been eaten into. Cows will only eat down to the level they left the grazing before.
Targeting and achieving these residual targets will ensure high quality feed of 12.5MJ of metabolisable energy (ME) in 18-22 days’ time. Not achieving the above will firstly lead to poor quality feed presented to your cows leading to poor milk yields from that grass and secondly poor-quality silage
Q: What is ideal kgDM/ha for cows to be turned out on and what residuals should be achieved at this time of year
A:• 2,500-2,800kg/DM/ha for spring pre-grazing covers
• 1,500-1,600 kg/DM/ha residuals
Q: What kg DM intakes is possible at this time of year?
A: The appetite of a spring calving cow peaks 40-50 days after calving. Early season intakes of 13-15 kg of dry matter can be expected before peaking at 17-18kg.
If you don’t feed anything else your cows are quite capable of consuming this in a 24-hour period. In reality most are feeding 2-4 kg of cake till there is enough grass on farm to allow this to be dropped back or stopped altogether. Spring grazing management is about budgeting your allocation on grass till magic day where grass growth outstrips cow demand and you are in a surplus or silage situation. If the spring does in fact prove to be early this date will be earlier than normal.