Grass makes up the vast majority of a milking cows diet, but grass as a feed can vary from week to week or day to day depending on weather conditions and time of year.
As a result milk yields as well as butterfat and protein% can fluctuate .
Throughout the 2017 grazing season we have 6 monitor farms taking grass samples.
These farms are located in Clare, Cork, Kerry and Kilkenny.
Farmers take a sample of grass from paddock cows are entering every Monday and post it off to be analysed.
Farmers also input current yield and solid %, latest fertiliser application and supplementation type and ground/weather conditions.
The compilation of these weekly samples will give us a better insight as to when supplementation levels need to be increased as grass quality decreases.
NutriOpt GrassWatch 2017 Explaination
Click on links below to see weekly variations:
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 16 Samples 24th July 2017 Southern Milling
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 10 Samples 12th June 2017 Southern Millings
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 9 Samples 3rd June 2017 Southern Milling (2)
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 8 Samples 29th May 2017 Southern Milling Monitor
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 7 Samples 22nd May 2017 Southern Milling Monitor Farms
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 6 Samples 15th May 2017 SM Monitor Farms
Nutriopt GrassWatch Week 5 Samples 8th May 2017 SM Monitor Farms