Owl Farm

Farmwatch

Region: Waikato

Over the next two months temperatures will increase and ryegrass will move into reproductive phase. A consequence of this will be lower ME, protein, digestibility and increased dry matter, lignin, reproductive stem, and NDF in pasture. Basically, this means pasture composition will change so less pasture can be eaten and digested by the cow as well as pasture being of a lower energy value. This is a double hit resulting in a decline from peak milk production. This decline varies from farm to farm depending on management of pasture quality, top performing farms will decline about 7% from their peak per month until the end of December. Decline from peak milk at dairy factories is much greater than this indicating there is opportunity for farmers to manage pasture for better quality.

To maximise pasture quality, maintain grazing residuals around 1,500 – 1,600 kgDM/ha with clumps grazed over the top, graze before the fourth leaf stage avoiding dead material accumulating, remove poor quality pasture by mowing and resetting the residual.

Add page to fav Page added to fav Remove from fav