Grazing management top tips

Making the most of grazed grass on your farm offers huge opportunity for reducing the cost of production.

1. Do not restrict water intake at pasture
2. Turn cows out with an appetite to encourage grazing – buffer feed before afternoon milking
3. Cows will eat on average 3% of their body weight as total dry matter intake including other feed and concentrates offered
4. Minimise the number of grazing groups so you, by default, maximise the number of cows per group to ease management
5. Grass measuring methods for rotational grazing
6. Turn cows into covers of around 2900 kg DM/ha
7. Take cows off the grazed area when the desired post-grazing residual of 1500 kg DM/ha (4cm) is achieved (preferably between 12-24 hours)
8. Avoid waste, or poor regrowth due to slack grazing, by operating a leader-follower system with heifer groups to achieve target residual
9. Discuss with consultant, vet, nutritionist to ensure mineral requirements are met
10. Re-forecast your winter feed and forage requirements using AHDB feed and forage calculator