Let us know what you think of this page
|
Maintaining high quality pasture while feeding cows well during a period of feed surplus is one of the greatest skills of pasture management. Temporary periods of pasture surplus develop mainly in spring and if not managed ryegrass forms stems, flowers and seed heads, resulting in a low pasture quality. |
If pastures are allowed to become stemmy, milk production will fall even though there appears to be plenty of pasture (a rapid fall from peak milk production is an indicator of poor pasture control). The benefits on summer production to maintaining a low residual pasture cover during the period of spring pasture surplus have been demonstrated in many trials.
DairyNZ Farmfacts Surplus Management - Identifying a Surplus (1-37) and Surplus Management - Options to Manage a Surplus (1-38) cover in great detail the areas of surplus management:
How to identify a surplus, includes information on judging a surplus, feed wedges, grazing targets, average pasture cover and cow intakes
Options to manage a surplus and how much area to shut up, includes the different management options, how much area to shut up, making quality silage, closure periods and deferred management.
