Welsh Pasture Project Update Summer 2018

3 August 2018

As the unprecedented dry spell continues and despite recent heavy showers across Wales leading to some slight greening of Wales’ farming landscape, focus should now shift to managing this precious regrowth even more carefully. Freshening covers should be protected to help build up an average farm cover that is of sufficient quality and leaf area for when the weather finally does break properly. It should be reminded that grass grows at an exponential rate and the higher the cover, higher the potential growth. Adequate farm cover will be essential during tupping and for much needed cuts of silage, therefore fields made up of poor quality and heady swards should now be the focus of any grazings, being mindful not to over graze below a residual of 1500KgDM (4cm). Grazing productive stock will need continued supplementation to ensure the short term protection of recovering swards and to maintain the animals yield/growth.

Table 1 below shows how one Welsh Pasture project farm has managed the severe downturn in growth through the dry period in June and July to now be in a position at the beginning of August where paddocks have been closed off for silage and have begun to replace buffered silage with grazed grass. This has been achieved by protecting the average farm cover above 1800 KgDM/Ha and selectively culling only 4% of the herd. Continued and steadfast weekly measuring along with the opportunity to carefully consider the grass and silage stocks available has allowed this particular unit to finally see light at the end of a very dry tunnel. This has been done without the need to excessively feed large amounts of silage and concentrates with only a three week period in mid-July where grazed grass made up less than 50% of the ration.

Table 1. Grass and feed data for one of the Welsh Pasture Project Dairy units

While it is tempting to say ‘why bother measuring with so little growth?’ the continued and meticulous measuring and assessment of swards during a weekly farm walk will give farmers and especially the younger generation of grassland managers the opportunity to collect data and learn for future years of similar severe weather conditions.