The grazing season

You are correct there Ozzy. I think the dry matter in the grass was just so low due to the incessant rainfall those weeks. That and the fact that they spent half the day sheltering from said rain.
Cattle thrive has little correlation with grass growth rates.

Look at including the older species of grasses to up fibre in the sward
 
Cattle thrive has little correlation with grass growth rates.

Look at including the older species of grasses to up fibre in the sward

Ah some of it would be older species of meadow grasses, not all PRG everywhere. I suppose the fact that there was a lot of aftergrass in that round wouldn't have helped either with the wet weather.
 
Cows here seem happy enough on the grass and meal in parlour. Back in may/June they were on maize silage straw and meal and couldn't get enough of it. Their demand has dropped. I'd be hoping to get to mid sept before I'll have to crack out the Keenan.
 
Took out 40% of the grazing platform during the week. Avg 7 bales/ac. Hopefully that's the last of it. Grass has been difficult to manage over the last few weeks.
 
@the dairy guys, is it the case that cows just milk off grass, irrespective off how fast it grows.

Only asking as a few beef lads commented above that, we never had "better" quality grass in front of cattle than the last month, and thrive has been poor
 
Took out 40% of the grazing platform during the week. Avg 7 bales/ac. Hopefully that's the last of it. Grass has been difficult to manage over the last few weeks.

Took out my first grazing paddock of the year last week. More a locational surplus that actual surplus. Guesstimating we are growing about 80-90
 
@the dairy guys, is it the case that cows just milk off grass, irrespective off how fast it grows.

Only asking as a few beef lads commented above that, we never had "better" quality grass in front of cattle than the last month, and thrive has been poor
Dairy cows normally have access to other feed, be that meal in the parlour or straw in the collecting yard. Young lush grass is no good to beef cattle unless they have access to some straw to slow it through the gut. When it comes out the back like a slurry spreader half of what they're eating has gone straight through them.
I remember a hot summer back in the mid 80's. We had cattle on rented ground, water was a stream that was so dry we had to put a dam in it, the grass was almost non-existent except for seed-heads. Never seen cattle look so good.
 
Dairy cows normally have access to other feed, be that meal in the parlour or straw in the collecting yard. Young lush grass is no good to beef cattle unless they have access to some straw to slow it through the gut. When it comes out the back like a slurry spreader half of what they're eating has gone straight through them.
I remember a hot summer back in the mid 80's. We had cattle on rented ground, water was a stream that was so dry we had to put a dam in it, the grass was almost non-existent except for seed-heads. Never seen cattle look so good.

I'm of the belief constructing grass sward with just PRG grass species is actually limiting animal performance. We have to start looking at the species our forefathers would have used
 
I'm of the belief constructing grass sward with just PRG grass species is actually limiting animal performance. We have to start looking at the species our forefathers would have used
I noticed big time this year that lambs are gaining more weight the weeks the were on old meadow type pastures than the weeks on prg type pastures
 
Not looking forward to this week's weather. Wet land here is getting quite sticky already and that was only after whatever it rained last night.
 
Dairy cows normally have access to other feed, be that meal in the parlour or straw in the collecting yard. Young lush grass is no good to beef cattle unless they have access to some straw to slow it through the gut. When it comes out the back like a slurry spreader half of what they're eating has gone straight through them.
I remember a hot summer back in the mid 80's. We had cattle on rented ground, water was a stream that was so dry we had to put a dam in it, the grass was almost non-existent except for seed-heads. Never seen cattle look so good.

I'm only a novice at fattening cattle. Learning all the time. Have a block of land, 8 acres. Use it to fatten bullocks. Used to split it in half but found that there is far better thrive from them by letting them graze it as one piece as it grows rather than building up heavy covers on either half.
 
I'm only a novice at fattening cattle. Learning all the time. Have a block of land, 8 acres. Use it to fatten bullocks. Used to split it in half but found that there is far better thrive from them by letting them graze it as one piece as it grows rather than building up heavy covers on either half.

Ive found the opposite tbh. Ive often bought in cattle that have been set stocked and after six weeks they would turn inside out after getting weekly moves to fresh grass. far less topping to do aswell.
 
Ive found the opposite tbh. Ive often bought in cattle that have been set stocked and after six weeks they would turn inside out after getting weekly moves to fresh grass. far less topping to do aswell.

Totally agree and much more flexible for cutting silage too.

I'm not fully there with it by a long shot but with that and strip grazing, animal performance is much better than before.
 
Ive found the opposite tbh. Ive often bought in cattle that have been set stocked and after six weeks they would turn inside out after getting weekly moves to fresh grass. far less topping to do aswell.
Find that they thrive best if I keep them on fresh constantly growing grass of 500 to 750kg /ha as opposed to paddock grazing them on grass that's 1500kg/ha. This particular piece of ground never needs to be topped.
 
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