Fully Feeding: a Forgotten Art?

Fully Feeding: a Forgotten Art?

Peter Burton
20th October 2009

Why is it that some farms have throughout the last three months had plentiful pasture to feed their herds whilst neighbouring farms have applied nitrogen, and bought in feed?

The answer is obviously not climatic. Management is the correct answer.

The properties with plentiful feed have all experienced slower than normal grass growth during May, June & July and applied low levels of fertiliser nitrogen since autumn. They are presently achieving exceptional per cow and per hectare production, and will maintain or increase that advantage over the local average throughout the season.

Common to these operations are cows gaining weight immediately after calving, almost negligible calcium/magnesium related metabolic disorders, low somatic cell counts, and only a few easily treated clinical cases of mastitis with owners and staff genuinely enjoying their early season work.

Their success is due to operators deliberately developing the skill of fully feeding each of their animals. Fully feeding implies that there is an absolute level of consumption and there is yet to be observed a “fully fed” cow that cannot be enticed to eat another mouthful of high quality pasture, so the art is encouraging each animal to eat more.

To feed cows exceptionally well prior to and after calving spring requires excellent observation both of animals and grass and the determination to make management decisions based on those observations.

Some farmers are skilled at observing animals, others are more inclined to observe and manage pastures well. The truly exceptional farmer is one that is able to manage both with little compromise.

There is no right grazing interval in spring or any other time of the year. When grass is growing rapidly the optimum interval between grazing is less than when growth is slower. It is the length of grass that usually determines when it should be grazed.

An observer of grazed pasture over 50 years ago noted that during the first 21 days of the re-growth period, growth of 30kgDM/day was followed by an average of 82kgDM/ha/day for the following ten days.

Contained in Andre Voisin’s excellent text Grass Productivity is a chapter on grass growth that details the importance of recognising the three periods of growth, an early period of slow growth, a central period of rapid growth, and a final period of slow growth.

It is the ability of the individual farmer to recognise the time of grazing that optimises pasture performance, and matching that to total animal feed requirements provides exceptional results.

Typically our conventional farming practises are based on too many animals grazing pastures well before optimum length limiting both pasture and animal production. One concern often voiced is the need to keep pastures short in order to maintain quality.

Pastures to which DoloZest and CalciZest are applied annually gain quality as growth slows prior to seed head formation without loss of palatability providing feed suitable for high levels of production and weight gain.

CalciZest, contains calcium in the form of high quality lime, beneficial fungi and bacteria supported with carbon and carbohydrate. An application now will stimulate clover growth over the coming months and it is the nitrogen fixed naturally via clover nodules that is the catalyst for maximising total pasture growth and animal production.