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Grazing management during and after calving largely determines production to Christmas and how well the cows are fed at mating. It is essential not to speed up the rotation too quickly after calving. Aim to hit the fastest spring rotation at balance date when pasture growth equals cow demand. |
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The Spring Rotation Planner (SRP) takes the guesswork out of grazing management over this critical period and allocates the feed to ensure that the target cover at balance date is achieved. The daily area allocation from the Spring Rotation Planner (Figure 1) can then be used to work out m2/cow/day, and break sizes for each mob (refer to DairyNZ Farmfact Spring Using the SRP - how to allocate feed (1-13b)).
Figure 1. Effect of speed of rotation on available feed (kg DM/ha)
Monitoring target cover
To get the best value out of the Spring Rotation Planner, actual APC (average pasture cover) needs to be monitored against target APC (Figure 1) from calving to balance date, by assessing pasture cover on the farm at least fortnightly in the spring. The target cover can be determined by a feed budget or by simply drawing a straight line from the APC target at calving to the APC at balance date.
