Dairy NZ is reporting a highly unusual phenomena on farms around the country – too much grass!

Unusually good pasture growth for this time of year is leading Dairy leaders to warn farmers their management must be top-notch to ensure they don’t face quality problems later on.

Craig McBeth, Dairy NZ’s regional teams manager, says they’ve been getting calls from confused farmers around the country, asking for advice on how to deal with an unseasonal surplus of feed.

“It’s important to identify a developing pasture surplus early, create a plan and follow it to hit target grazing residuals.

“If you don’t get it right, pasture can deteriorate resulting in lower pasture quality at a time when milking cows need the best quality pasture you can give them to maximise milk production.” 

Mr McBeth says possible solutions include scaling back on fertiliser application, speeding up grazing rotation or closing up grass to make silage.

“If pastures are more than 3200kg dry matter/hectare, the milking cows are going to struggle to get through it. This pasture can be allocated to the remaining dry cows, or leave these paddocks out of the rotation altogether. It is better to keep 90 percent of the farm in good order rather than see the whole farm become affected.

“Rotation lengths can be faster than normal but faster than 40 days is risky for this time of year, as temperatures are still limiting new leaf emergence.

“Grass, and therefore silage quality, changes very slowly at this time of year, so the grass can wait until the weather is suitable before you mow. In preparation for this, silage inoculants should be considered,” says Craig.

Dairy NZ is advising anyone with a surplus of feed to head to their website, dairynz.co.nz/surplus.

-Weatherwatch and CountryTV