This is the time of year to assess what forage you have and look for additional land if you are short.   Grass keep can be offered locally on private deals for as little as £30-£50/acre, with the owner claiming BPS etc.  This is cheap when you tell ‘Joe Public’ how big an acre is, but is it value for money?  This is probably neglected land with no soil analysed for years, overgrown hedges, access only April-October as sheep may graze in winter and has poor sward quality.  Yet many farmers will make silage off it, graze heifers on it and think it good value for money.

It probably is 3-4 miles from home.  If dairy heifers grazed on it, they will grow at 50% of target to calve at two years.  It will be poorly fenced and the silage made on it will be either 70% of target quantity or be second quality which is fed to those same summer grazed heifers.

The result may be heifers calving 4-6 months older than target or if on target, 500kgs extra concentrates fed at cost of £100/heifer.  On top of this you grow only 60% of output of grass that you do on your owned land.  The big difference is that you haven’t got longer term security to invest in the land.

Would the money on the grass keep be better spent on your own land?  Say 20 Ha keep @ £125/Ha equates to £5k rent saved.  You lose 120T of grass DM production (20 x 6T/Ha) but if this is spread over your own 100 Ha at home 1.2T DM/Ha extra growth required to make up for the lack of rented land.

The rent saved and invested per owned Ha equates to £50/Ha.  This would buy 200T Lime or 20T Potash or 16T Phosphate to improve output of own land.  A combination of these would lift the fertility on average soils to grow another 1-2T DM/Ha over a 2-3 year period without reseeding (+ 10-15% production).  Unless all your soils are at optimal fertility you are not exploiting the true potential of your farm’s ability to grow forages.

By not renting the cheap keep, you could be saving labour, saving transport and machinery costs, growing your animals faster and more efficiently without the threat of losing that cheap keep!  Soil test today before cattle are back on the land and act on the results this spring and summer.

To discuss further, please contact Gerard at gerardfinnan@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office.