DairyNZ advises farmers to pay close attention to pasture growth rates in the next few weeks. "After a cold winter pasture growth rates are increasing rapidly throughout the North Island," says DairyNZ feed specialist Phillipa Hedley. ""Now is the time to stop putting extra feed into the system through the use of supplements, nitrogen or ProGibb and to shift grazing management from winter restriction to optimal feeding. "The payoff for this is high milksolid production at low cost from now until February. The right pasture management decisions made today will have a significant positive effect on farmers' end of season results."The key to good pasture quality is grazing to 7-8 clicks on the rising platemeter (RPM) or 1500-1600 kg DM/ha by offering the right pre-grazing cover. The quality of pastures with more than 3200 kg DM/ha (19 clicks on the RPM) cannot be easily controlled by grazing without adversely affecting cow intake and production. These pastures need either to be made into silage or can topped (before or after grazing) to restore quality. Other options include: Increase the area grazed while maintaining grazing residuals at 1500 kg DM/ha by going into lower pre-grazing covers Speed up the rotation length to 25 "“ 28 days, a slower rotation for high stocked farms, a faster rotation for lower stocked farms or where the APC is more than 100 kg DM/ha above target Monitor residuals and check that cows are not being underfed "“ cows need to graze for at least four hours per 12 hr grazing Consider 24 hour grazing. Offer the cows their first break at night to encourage high intake. The decision on grazing residuals then can be made once a day in the daylight Increase grazing residuals for dry cows to 1300-1400 kg DM/ha Drop paddocks out of the rotation if APC is more than 100 kg DM/ha above target ie paddocks that have exceeded the pre-graze cover Reassess pre-graze cover on the reduced area. This will need to be revised weekly as the rotation length decreases If growth rates are poor the next two weeks paddocks dropped out can be re-introduced to grazing and either mown in front or after grazing to get residuals to 7-8 clicks.
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