There are 90 days between August 10 and November 10. In this window of time, we can “move the grass above” or we can capture the opportunity for the who we look forward to all year. It is the time to produce and harvest grass of high nutritional value.
It is easier to manage scarcity to abundance. This applies to the management of the grass, a clear example is the direct correlation between burden animal and crop of grass: more competition equals higher grazing pressure, resulting in higher yields of pasture quality. All this is relevant today because spring is almost started and spring is the time to harvest at least half of the grass that we can harvest in the year.
The problem is that in these months the grass is growing, sometimes uncontrollably. A way to prevent the excessive accumulation of forage in the spring is to be proactive and to minimize the area of grazing before seeing him in such a way as to equalize the demand and supply of grass. As I said Colin Holmes, “in the end it is a question of supply and demand.” And he also said Colin, “if you have no fear it's because something's wrong.” Is that handle well on grass, especially in the spring, has to go hand in hand with a little bit of adrenaline. If you see many days of grazing forward, let's make something already! If not, passport to the failure And then?
The calculation of fear
Think of a time window of 90 days in the supply of forage to surpass the demand (for example, August 10, November 10). We want to harvest everything that grows, and, if possible, by direct grazing. "What we don't want is for us to pass the grass! Never. Let's go back to basics, supply and demand.
Then, we find ourselves today, in August, and we predict it will lead to the growth of What will be the average growth rate in that period of 90 days? Let's say that we assume that it's going to be 50 kg MS/ha (eye, it's not worth being too conservative). What is the maximum consumption of grass that we can achieve with animals? Saquémosle a percentage for the use of 80% (of which it grows), then each animal needs to be offered 15 kg to eat about 12 kg of dry matter. Finally, What will be the charge animal average in that period? Let's say that 3 cows/ha. Each day, to eat cows at the maximum, the system needs 3 x 15 = 45 kg dm of grass has.
Let's go back to the average rate in the forecast, which was 50 kg dm/ha/day. And we need 45 kg dm/ha/day. The decision is now easy to take, although it requires courage; that is why the “calculus of fear”: we can shrink the grazing area (surface effective grazing) in a percentage, that is to say 45/50 = 0,90. This means that we can use 90% of the area and close to 10% of the area for reservations. We gain by all sides, everything we offer is of high quality and close area to reservations in the form proactive.
Now let's think about the area of grazing effective (surface where the cows on the dairy farm will graze in that period). In addition to booking grass, and, perhaps most important, we get that the entire surface of grazing to maintain quality. We have on average four grazing. If we are efficient, we harvest at least half of the supply annual. If we want to manage this resource, it is better to put ourselves in a position of scarcity and encourage us to have a bit of fear. If we do something like this in this moment can we expect to reap much grass of quality at this critical moment of the year.
Batch ready to face the "wave of grass"... fertilized with urea and weeding after grazing, to promote the supply of grass quality (annual ryegrass, Navarro, BA)
Dr. Gonzalo Tuñon
gtunon@progressivedairysolutions.com
