Making the Most of Welcome Late-Season Grass

UK - The tremendous flush of late-season grass growth stimulated by good rainfall from August onwards provides beef producers across England with a valuable opportunity to make-up for grazing liveweight gains sacrificed to the summer drought and potential shortages of conserved forage.
calendar icon 29 September 2006
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However, the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) stresses that careful management will be essential to ensure the best utilisation and animal performance.

Providing grassland management kept on top of high peak growth rates in April and May, ‘hard grazing’ during the drought will have produced good leafy late-season swards with excellent potential for supporting liveweight gains.

September sward analyses at the Duchy College in Cornwall, for instance, show ME contents of over 11 MJ/kg DM and protein levels of more than 25% in grass with an average dry matter of just under 14.7%. Very similar to the college’s early May analyses, these results support reports from other parts of the country indicating a surprising amount of nutritional value in this autumn’s grass.

Source: stackyard.com
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