11 July 2018
Despite the recent hot and dry spell and a lack of grass growth, one consolation is the fact that cows hunger tends to be satisfied even on these lower farm covers. Recent grass samples as part of the Welsh Pasture Project has shown Fresh grass sampling with Dry Matters of 28%, up from 18% only 6 weeks prior.
An example is a 600Kg cow requiring an intake 18 KgDM/Day made up of 3KgDM of concentrate and 15KgDM of grass would need to eat 83.3Kg Fresh Weight (FW) of grass per day at 18% Dry Matter, whilst if she eat the above sampled grass she would only need to consume 53.2 KgFW. However it is still important to note that the above sample still has good levels of protein and Metabolisable Energy, whilst the Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) levels are high enough to allow further supplementation with concentrates. It could be worth sampling your grasses at key periods and situations throughout the year to correctly allocate grazing and supplementation to avoid underfeeding or wasteful over allocation.