Advice on building drought resilience into grazing plans

Grazing managers are advised to review the lessons learned from this year’s prolonged drought and successive heatwaves, then use them to plan for the same conditions forecast for next year.

See also: What worked on dairy units to combat this year’s heatwaves? 

Resilience is going to rely on good-quality decisions based on farm data and having more than one contingency plan for feeding cows cost-effectively at grass, according to LIC consultant Piers Badnell.

“Hotter, drier summers are going to become more regular, so people shouldn’t be surprised or caught out by them,” he says.

“Talk about it now while you remember what happened, then make a plan – don’t wait until you are in a drought. In fact, have an A-plan, a B-plan and possibly a C-plan.

“Think about what went well and not so well this year, and what was average. When did the drought break, and how – downpours or steady rain? Remember, it takes seven to 10 days [for paddocks] to green up, then there is a ‘green drought’ for two to three weeks before there is enough quality grass to graze.”

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Profit still possible with strategic planning

Piers thinks this year’s weather extremes have made margins extra tight in a year of lower milk prices. Yet he is sure profit will still be made by those dairy farmers who had a handle on how their farm reacts in a full-blown drought.

These businesses will have put in place strategies to protect grass growth, average farm cover and plant recovery.

He recognises that every farm will make different decisions to cope with drought. Predicting when grass is likely to run out needs to be based on data from weekly plate metering results logged in grazing software.

“Going back through six years [of grass growth data], you’ve got several droughts, so see what happened previously and how your farm reacted to no rain, or a lack of soil moisture. It’s a good guide,” he says.

Informed decision-making

Decision day in the rotational grazing season is 1 June – perhaps the very end of May. This is when one of the plans needs to be actioned to protect average farm cover based on current conditions.

Tracking rainfall patterns, soil moisture status, any rain forecast and grass growth to date will determine which plan to set in place, says Piers.

This might include bringing silage ground into the rotation; extending the rotation length to 60-120 days, with cows camping in one paddock if necessary; and/or introducing supplementary feed. Businesses need to include silage stocks in their plan.

“People need to calculate how much silage they need for winter, then to cover shoulders, then for a dry summer. Can they buy in feed and still make a margin on a lower milk price?”

Simply delaying first cut to increase yield will lower quality and push the timing of second cut into the drought.

Far better, according to Piers, is to stick to cutting in late April, so that on a four- to six-week regime second cut is taken before seed heads emerge. Doing this will protect yield and nutritional quality.

Insurance stocks of silage

He finds that individual farm scenarios depend on a farmer’s view of risk and how they cope with it.

“It’s easy for me to say stock an extra one to two months of silage for a dry summer, but when you have to buy extra, it has implications on cashflow, storage and the practicalities of feeding it, whether in the paddock or inside in a trough,” he explains.

“Some farms will need to carry a greater quantity as an insurance – but remember this costs money. In a summer like this one, it’s money well spent.”