Give your cattle a spring in their step

Making the most of weight gain from grazed grass is essential for a successful calf to beef system, writes

seven weeks from the 1st April to produce high quality silage from May 20.

Graze the remaining two thirds of the grazing ground

Stock numbers at grass will have increased by now and hopefully the weather will be improving making it easier to graze out higher covers.

Graze the paddocks out as tight as possible.

– Ideally graze down to at least 4cm. – Use a back fence in poor /wet weather to avoid poaching.

Stick to the target weekly area

Do not graze more or less per week

Grazing too slow and not meeting the target areas

– Turn out extra stock earlier than planned – Graze lighter covers first and then return to heavier covers

Grazing too fast and going ahead of target areas

– Delay turn out of more stock – Rehouse some stock – Feed silage bales at grass or in yard – Only graze by day; feed stock indoors at night

Be practical

– Weather and ground conditions will determine a lot. – Conditions may never be 100pc so get some stock out whenever possible. – Avoid severe poaching as this will have huge effects on the amount of grass grown in subsequent rotations. – Be wary of letting very young stock out in extremely wet and cold weather unless they have access to shelter. – Don’t let large numbers of stock out on the first day, build up slowly. – Very often, you will need to graze light covers first to get the area targets met.