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Spring Turnout 2022 – getting your spring turnout right
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KiwiKit bring New Zealand Solutions for British Farmers, Fencing Contractors and Veterinary Surgeons. Our aim is to provide good quality product that will do the job at the right price with a first class service to our customers. KiwiKit has a long history of bringing innovative products to the UK market and providing our customers with choice and quality with products that add value to your enterprise, or your lifestyle. ROXAN provide the world’s leading brands in livestock management systems from the fully automatic ear tagging system for sheep, TagFaster, to the accurate animal health delivery systems from Simcro and easy to use EID readers from Tru-Test.
© Datamars Agri UK Ltd
Top Grazing Turnout Tips
Early grazing stimulates growth earlier a further 1–1.5 tonnes of Dry Matter (DM) is possible. Also the wedge of grass in front of cows differs so easier control and silage field allocation can occur as ‘Magic Day’ arrives – when grassland is growing faster than it is being consumed.
Benefits of grazed grass
- Who benefits the most from an early turnout
- Cautionary notes on spring turnout
- Managing the herd smarter
- Making sure their ration is adequate
- Ewes and lambs on pasture
Grazed grass is the highest-quality feed on farm in spring, better than silage and equivalent to concentrates but with a significantly lower carbon footprint.
The entire herd need not initially be turned out. Priority perhaps to those benefitting most who will respond if on a ‘fresh bite’.
Spring grass can spell trouble for a cow’s digestive function and sufficient fibre is essential in to provide the ‘scratch factor’. Cattle monitoring systems, such as Active Tags or collars monitor both reproductive and general animal health.
With sheep on pasture you can achieve faster regrowth by resting grass and moving stock on faster, also lowering the parasite risk.
Electric fencing offers flexibility and a cost effective solution with the ultimate aim to “getting as much output from grazed grass as we possibly can” comments Farmers’ Weekly Beef Farmers Of The Year 2021 Aled and Iwan Evans from Whitland, Camarthenshire.
“Home grown forage is key to our system and are looking to our multi species leys to deliver good growth especially during the drier summer months when our ryegrass mixtures struggle from less inputs” says Farmers’ Weekly Grassland Manager of the Year 2021 Mark Housby from Peepy Farm in Northumberland.
Farm Performance & Monitoring (LPM) solutions from Tru-Test include rising Plate Meters recording pasture height and cover. Weigh scale ind
icators, EID Readers and Load bars capture animal liveweight performance. Tru-Test Active Ear Tags and Active Collar Tags deliver world-class precision in heat detection and health monitoring to provide early warning on a potential health issue.
Pel electric fencing has powered mains, battery or solar energisers and fence accessories. Strainrite hand tools provide wire strainers, dispensers and crimpers for both permanent and temporary conventional and electric fencing. Available from your local KiwiKit/Roxan representative, kwikitroxan.co.uk or call 01584 879 959 or 01750 724110
Find out more in KiwiKit Roxan’s latest Spring Turnout E-Book! Click to download our E-Book and enjoy your FREE fully laminated write & wipe A2 Grazing Wall Planner, a must for any farm office. Aled and Mark are GrassCheck GB members. Read more about them, Spring Turnout tips and GrassCheckGB in our E-Book.
