It has been a variable season for grass growth with big differences across the country in regional weekly growth patterns (as shown by the excellent AHDB reporting on Forage for Knowledge).  This time of year is a good time to assess grass growth on an individual farm basis, using recorded growth rates across the season, if these have been input into programmes such as Agrinet or similar, then patterns of grass growth on a field by field or paddock by paddock basis, can be easily assessed.  Even if you have been recording on own farm spreadsheets, you can of course work this out or input them into commercial software to achieve the same result.

From this information, it is possible to identify which fields are growing well and which are not performing so well.  From this information, management decisions, such as soil samples, weed control or reseeding could be based.

Many farms which have undergone this type of regime are finding the better performing paddocks are far out performing the unimproved ones, resulting in increases of dry matter per hectare of anywhere between 15 and 30%.

It is also a good opportunity during the year to review fertiliser policy. With the price of fertiliser now significantly lower than the comparative cost of concentrates, the opportunity to boost fertiliser use, in this or future seasons, (always remaining within NVZ rules) can be assessed.

For help in increasing your farm profits through growing and using more forage, contact Max at maxsealy@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office.