Although it is still January, there will be opportunities on drier land to start filtering lighter cattle back to grass from late February onwards.

However, an early turnout must be planned, as grass growth will fall below grazing demand. If it is unplanned, there is more chance of running out of grass.

There will be limited grass on farm, which has to be rationed until 'magic day', which is the point during spring when growth rates meet livestock demand. On most farms, this occurs in mid- to late April.

Outlined are a few steps to follow when planning to get cattle back to grass early.

1 Walk the farm this week

The first thing to do is to walk the farm and make a note of how much grass is available, which fields are dry and those that will take slurry or bagged fertiliser.

You cannot do this by pulling up to the field gate and looking in or driving fields in the pick-up. Walking the field is essential.

Repeat this step after four weeks to gauge how ground conditions and grass supplies are changing.

2 Fertiliser

The next step is to target early season fertiliser to ground that can carry machinery. In paddocks with heavy covers, wait until the sward is grazed off before applying fertiliser.

For medium covers around ankle height, apply chemical fertiliser. Apply slurry to low covers, as these swards will not be ready to graze until late March or April.

As grass growth will be low in early spring, rotations will be fast. If you apply slurry to medium covers, there is a chance these swards may not be ready for grazing once heavier covers have been eaten off. This increases the chances of running out of grass.

3 Do a simple grazing budget

Work out a simple grazing budget to see how grass will last and how many cattle could go to grass.

As a rule of thumb, work on the principle that 1cm of grass above toe height (4cm) is around 200kg DM/ha, so a sward averaging 6cm in height has around 400kg DM/ha of grass available for grazing.

Across 4ha (10 acres), this means there is 1,600kg DM/ha of grass. Cattle will eat around 2.5% of their liveweight in dry matter on spring grass, so a group of 10 stores weighing 400kg will have a daily demand of 100kg of DM/ha/day.

This means there is around 16 days grazing available in the outlined field. However, the budget makes no allowance for weather or ground conditions, which will ultimately decide how long cattle can graze in a paddock during spring.

4 Selecting stock

When choosing stock to turn out in early spring, always opt for lighter cattle, as they will inflict less ground damage.

They will also require less grass, thereby stretching grazing further. Ideally, choose yearling heifers that will be kept for breeding, followed by weanlings which will be sold later in spring or killed next autumn.

5 Start small and don’t be afraid to rehouse

Start with a small group of 10 cattle or less and leave these animals at grass for one to two weeks. If you are confident grass supplies will carry more animals, then turn out another small group of animals and build from there.

If grass is running out fast or weather declines, then don’t be afraid to rehouse animals to protect swards.

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