Looking after your pasture

It is a known fact that Tasmanian farmers are the best at managing their pastures in the country. Making the most of your home-grown advantage by protecting your pasture cover over the winter will set you up well for whatever spring throws at you.

Now that we have had rain it could be tempting to open the gates and let the cows graze as much as possible. But holding your nerve and making smart decisions now is where the money for next season will come from.

However, you can not make good decisions if you do not know your current situation. An accurate feed budget will help you with setting yourself up for next season by protecting your pasture cover over the winter period. You can check out the Feed Budgeting tool on the Dairy Australia website for assistance if you don’t already have a feed budget in place. Or give one of the DairyTas staff members a call to help get you started

Once you know your situation there is still time to lift your pasture cover, should it be a bit low. Some of the options available for you include:

• Nitrogen, be it in the form of Urea, Sulphate of Ammonia or a combination of these with ProGibb, is very valuable at this time of year. According to the TIA Pasture Growth Rate report pastures are still growing, albeit slowly. Any nitrogen applications while pastures are growing will give you a response, if you keep your grazing round long. And by long, the TIA report indicates that it is 13 days per leaf, so you will need to target between 32 (2.5 leaves) and 40 days (3 leaves).
• Winter feed is incredibly valuable, so the more you can grow on your farm over this period the better placed you will be going into spring. Therefore, despite lower response rates, nitrogen at this time of year on actively growing pastures is still worth doing.
• Use supplements to keep your round length long. While hay and silage are expensive this season, they are still available for purchase, unlike last year. If you find yourself falling into an ever-shrinking grazing round (quicker than 30 days) then the purchase of some supplements to help increase this round will pay off in the longer-term. This is where the accurate feed budget will help you determine how much you need to purchase to get to beyond breakeven point in spring.
• Drying cows off earlier will reduce your overall feed requirements. As dry off is extremely close for spring calvers, drying off or selling cows that will not be around next season can help you in protecting your pasture covers thus protecting next season as well. Having good data on your cows, knowing their pregnancy status, cell count and production will help you to make sound decisions about who can go and who will be helpful next year.

It cannot be stated enough, before you decide on one or more of these options it is important that you know your feed situation by completing a feed budget. Good data will help you with making the right decision to set up next season well. Here’s to a winter of good decision making.