From the middle of September; grass growth rates usually begin to decline rapdily and demand for grass on the farm is higher than daily growth.
Where covers of grass have been built up since August, there should be a bank of grass available for grazing for the remainder of the season, along with whatever grass grows each day.
The questions then are:
What is the best strategy for using this autumn grass?
Which stock should it be given to and which should be housed?
What group of cattle on the farm should be the last to be housed?
Most beef farmers will not be considering housing any of their cattle in September as they are not operating high stocking rate systems and can afford to leave all their stock grazing until at least October. However, there are exceptions, especially when it comes to cattle that are within three to five months of finishing.
While there may still be quite a bit of grass available for grazing in September, the question that has to be answered is whether or not the grass has enough energy even with supplementation to finish cattle in a short period of time? Heifers and two-year-old bullocks that are very close to finish (no more than six weeks of feeding) may stay at grass with 3kg to 5kg of meal to finish them, as housing them will only set them back a month.
Certain groups of stock which are not going to finish off grass may be candidates for housing in September. For example, autumn born Friesian bulls that need to be slaughtered by their 16th month would, in most cases, benefit by being housed and built up on to their finishing ration sooner rather than later in the month. Similarly, heifers or bullocks that need to be finished for the Christmas trade would also need to be housed in September.
Older bulls from either the dairy or suckler herd (18 to 20 months) start to become very restless and aggressive as they get older and if they are not filling their bellies with grass, this misbehaviour only gets worse as the month progresses. Housing is the only option.
For all these groups, whether they are housed early in September or later, will depend very much on what grass is available and the weather conditions. Leaving large numbers out that should really have been housed can have a huge demand on grass and if it is left too late it can leave very little for the remaining stock at grass. This can then lead to the remainder being housed much earlier than planned.
Wet weather, of course, is a deal breaker in September and should mean pulling the plug on those cattle that need to be housed if they are to be finished in time.
Creep Grazing
Many spring calving suckler herds are not weaning their calves until well into October. It is difficult to know whether or not the calf is benefiting from the milk it is getting from its mother at this stage, especially with January to March born calves. What we know, however, is that the cow still has a huge intake of grass while, at the same time, she is no longer producing a significant amount of milk. It makes sense, therefore, to limit the quantity but, more importantly, the quality of grass that she is getting compared with the amount her calf is getting.
The only way to do this without weaning them is to creep graze the calf ahead of the cow and this should begin as soon as possible.
The benefits of creep grazing are many:
Calves get priority access to the best quality grass which helps to maintain performance.
With calves having an adequate supply of quality grass, less meal is required, giving a cost saving on feed.
Calves get used to grazing away from cows which helps to reduce the maternal bond between cow and calf, leading to reduced weaning stress.
It is cheap to operate – it can be done by installing a creep gate or by raised electric fence.
It facilitates meal feeding. Meal can be fed in troughs in the creep grazing paddock and rationed to animal requirements.
All calves can be observed meal feeding, which aids the detection of diseases such as pneumonia.
Closing
October is the month when farmers need to start closing some of the farm so that they have grass built up to graze early in the new year. This does not mean that all of the stock on the farm have to be housed at the same time. A proper rotational grazing system allows for small areas to be closed. However, it concentrates the number of cattle that are left out on the remaining ground to be closed, which is shrinking by the week.
Decisions have to be made as to what stays out and what is housed. It is also important that all of the farm is grazed before the last of the stock are housed, especially if there are heavy grass covers in some fields. These can be a problem later in the autumn if the weather turns very wet and ground conditions are not suitable for grazing.
It is a balancing act to make sure you only leave out stock that can stay out for a long period to reduce the length of the winter but you also leave out enough of the right type of stock so that all grass is grazed before closing permanently.
Heavy cattle that are to be finished over the winter are the prime candidates for housing first. This is because they have a big demand for grass and removing them considerably lessens the grass eaten daily on the farm.
In many cases they are not yet on meal as they are going to have a five to six-month winter indoors. Their performance on grass alone is often less than 0.5kg LW per day and housing them onto their finishing diet pushes their daily gain up over 1kg LW per day.
As they are heavy, they can also do a lot of damage or soiling of whatever grass is remaining if there is a wet period of any length. Aim to keep them at grass until at least the middle of October. Where land is dry, weather conditions are good and there is still plenty of grass to be eaten, their housing date can be delayed until the last week of October.
November
On most beef farms, November will be the last month for cattle grazing, unless the weather remains very dry and there are still very heavy covers of grass to graze. With 60% of the farm closed by the middle of the month at the latest, this leaves just 40% to be grazed out. At that stage it is usually either dry suckler cows or weanlings that are still at grass.
Being lighter, the weanlings will do a lot less damage to ground in wetter conditions and are probably the best candidates for housing last.
Also, dry suckler cows need a certain level of body condition at housing so that they can lose some weight over the winter on either a lower energy winter diet or by being fed less to save on winter feed. They cannot lose too much condition before they are housed. Aim to have all of the farm grazed before the last group of cattle are housed.
This article is an excerpt from ‘Grazing Guide’ which was published as a joint venture between the Irish Farmers Journal and Teagasc.
(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – 06/09/2015)
Grazing Guide Case Study: Sean Power, Co. Kilkenny
Sean Power joined phase two of the Teagasc/BETTER farm beef programme in 2012. He farms 118ha with his family outside Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny. Sean is hosting a farm walk on 15th September. Sean Power’s farm is all in grass and is divided into four blocks, which are all within a six-mile radius.The largest block of land is 56ha and the smallest block is 13ha.The majority of the farm is freedraining limestone land, which has great potential for getting cattle out to grass in early spring for a long grazing season.
Planning session for farm walk on Sean Power’s farm in Woodsgift, Co Kilkenny
Sean is one of two farmers in the programme operating a trading beef system. Sean operates a heifer yearling-to-beef finishing system. The heifers are purchased in marts at approximately one year old and finished on the farm at grass or during the winter housing period.
Heifers are normally killed at 300kg carcase, with most animals grading R. Sean has been buying better quality animals and his average carcase weight in 2014 was 319kg.
Sean also runs a mid-season lambing flock of 170 ewes, with all lambs finished on-farm. He also purchases an additional 400 store lambs each year for finishing during the winter. The sheep are kept on the home farm from lambing time and Sean has made a lot of improvements, such as fencing, to help improve grassland management and reduce labour.
The cattle are managed on the other three outfarms bring most of the grazing season and over the course of the programme, Sean has erected sheep fencing on the majority of his fields so he can graze store lambs over the winter months.
Gross margin
At the beginning of the BETTER farm farm programme, when developing Sean’s three year farm plan, the main focus was to increase the stocking rate to improve the output to help generate extra profits.
Sean also wanted to be able to run a beef finishing business that could sell heifers every month and buy in heifers every month to improve farm cashflow and reduce the risk of market price volatility at purchase and selling time.
Sean’s gross margin at the beginning of the programme was €675/ha on the cattle enterprise and €701/ha on the whole farm. In 2013, Sean increased the number of heifers purchased and in 2014, he slaughtered 337 heifers.
As a result, Sean’s profit monitor results have shown a steady increase in stocking rate, beef output and output value. In 2014, the cattle stocking rate increased to 2.45LU/ha and produced 30% more liveweight of beef than in 2011. As a result, the farm’s output value has increased by almost 60% from €1,221/ha in 2011 to €1,946 in 2014. The overall farm gross margin on this farm (cattle and sheep enterprises) has increased from €701/ha to €967/ha in 2014.
Grassland Management
As Sean has been working on buying in and finishing extra cattle each year to increase the farm stocking rate, it is also very important that he manages his grassland so that he can provide sufficient feed for the higher stocking rate during the grazing and winter feeding period. Sean increased the number of paddocks on the farm to allow him grow more grass by protecting plant regrowths and improving utilisation.
Implementing the rotational paddock system and walking the farm each week to measure grass growth assists Sean in budgeting his grass supply so that he has more control of his pre-grazing sward heights to ensure cattle are consistently eating highly digestible grass during the grazing season to maximise liveweight gain.
Sean has invested by erecting permanent electric fences on the main cattle farms that can also be subdivided with wire reels and plastic stakes if need be. He has also invested in sheep fencing the boundary fences of nearly all his fields, so he can graze store lambs as part of his last rotation in the autumn.
Soil fertility plays a key role in growing grass. Sean took soil samples on the whole farm in 2013 and, as with many Irish farms, the results indicated that the farm was low in pH, phosphorous (P) and potassium (K).
As the pH of the soil is very important in regulating nutrient uptake and efficiency of fertiliser usage, Sean focused on correcting the pH status of his soils first by spreading ground limestone.
Only 15% of the farm tested index 3 and 4 for P, with approximately 65% and 19% at index 1 and 2.
Similarly, 42% of the farm tested index 3 and 4 for K, with 58% of the farm in index 1 and 2. Sean has now spread more compound fertiliser in the form of 18:6:12 to fields with low fertility.
(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – 06/09/2015)