Grass quality has been consistently poor in the last number of weeks, which is largely down to the poor weather conditions we have experienced throughout the summer.
Grass has been shooting out at a much earlier stage, which has resulted in more stemming of grass and a lot less tillering, which has left many farmers with stemmy swards.
Along with the need of rectifying the grass quality issues, is the need to incorporate potash into your fertiliser plan and application.
With poor grass growth rates still prevailing, farmers need to make sure they are giving their grass the best possible start and chance to grow – and that starts beneath the surface.
Grass quality
Milk protein content has been way down for this time of the year, which is nearly directly down to grass quality and dry matter digestibility (DMD).
According to the head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer, Dr. Joe Patton, the changes in the digestibility of grass are associated with changes in the amount of green leaf, mature stem and dead material.
July is traditionally supposed to be the ‘clean up’ month before farmers start building grass supply in August, but it has obviously been hard to get good residuals with the amount of stem in the swards.
However, every effort must be made to try and rectify this situation and improve the residuals left by your cows.
Topping may have to be done to correct this, in order to achieve good a good clean out of paddocks. However, while grass growth rates are still back, a full round of topping should not be done.
The removal of poorer quality paddocks or strong paddocks through mowing and baling remains the optimal way of correcting grass quality in the grazing rotation.
Potash
If your soil is lacking in major elements such as phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), growing less grass is inevitable.
It is no secret that many soils across the country are index one or two for K, and are therefore deficient in this element, meaning they are not maximising their full potential.
The deficiency of K has been particularly bad in silage ground, but has become more common in the grazing area in recent years.
Dr. Patton contends that there are three reasons for this, as follows:
- Not enough compound fertiliser being spread;
- Swards harvested for bales are removing K and every four bales/acre removes 24 units of K;
- Soils deficient in lime will ‘lock up’ K in the soil.
There are no regulations or limits on quantity or timing of spreading when it comes to K, which means it should be utilised in your swards while still remaining efficient and accurate in spreading.
There are many fertiliser products on the market that have nitrogen (N), K and sulphur (S) with no P.
For instance, 29:0:15+S will help replenish K.