Feed supplement to protect grass cover

Protect your Average Farm Cover (AFC) as conditions remain dry. Once it rains and growth kicks off, you need to be ready, warns LIC consultant Piers Badnell.

He suggests feeding concentrates or silage now to ensure that AFC doesn’t dip below 1,800–1,900 kg DM/ha.

Recent frosts, together with a lack of rain, have reduced grass growth for this time of year to 20–30 kg DM/ha. But as nights warm up and some areas do see rain, this could suddenly jump to 90 kg DM/ha, says Piers. “Supplementing with concentrates or silage will reduce grazed grass demand. It can’t get below 1,800–1,900 kg DM/ha at Magic Day/Balance Day,” he adds.

Grazing below this AFC will slow regrowth due to more paddocks being at the one-leaf stage, and the first leaf is the smallest on the grass plant, contributing just 15% of plant yield.