[lisa chandler]

Hi Will, with my limited knowledge , and not knowing the size of the paddock you are discussing, I would say the following.

If you are cutting for Hay, then that is not normally carried out til mid October- mid November, depending on season. If you have some good growth already and you leave it un grazed then you risk it going to seed early and therefore not making good hay. Ideally , it would be great if you could put electric tape around the good areas and graze this only, even if just for a few hours..every couple of weeks, and if possible with only a few animals. The other areas may be patchy from a whole range of factors including sunlight access, soil type etc. You want to try and get the paddock at the same stage of growth ideally by late August, then shut the gate to allow at least 6 weeks undisturbed growth. You won’t get much growth now that the temperatures have really dropped and short days until early -midAugust. That’s when the growth really starts to be noticed

if the paddock is boggy however, even in good growth areas, I would not graze cattle now as you risk compaction that will later hinder growth due to poor drainage. But if you had a few sheep that are much lighter , this could be a good alternative.

But before any grazing takes place, you want to make sure that the pasture is in at least a 3 leaf stage and very important to only very lightly graze to ensure plenty of leaf “ solar panel” left and to encourage good root growth.

In short, It’s a balancing exercise. Good luck

[Mark Tupman]

Hi Will,

Yes, you can and should graze it now as this will set the scene for another round of vegetative regrowth.

I would be inclined to get the animals in there with high mob density and take the whole lot down quickly, but more completely. This will make for a more even stand of regrowth. Only partially grazing the area will result in selective grazing with some species getting grazed more than others. If given the option, the animals will also tend to eat the young leaves and avoid the old leaves and stem. These things happen if you don’t have high enough mob density. This is not the best for the animals as they don’t get an adequate balance of fibre and can scour. You also end up leaving behind a large amount of older more fibrous material that only declines further with time and is not what you want in your hay.

Check out the grazing management for pasture, soil and animal health article in the knowledge bank for further clarification.

[Will McGirr]

Thanks Mark – this is what I was leaning towards. So will give a good grace