Roughage tour Week 30
Screaming demand for rain in the west
The rainfall in the Netherlands seems to be becoming more and more local. Where they cannot and do not want to see a drop of rain in Limburg, there is almost a screaming demand for rain in other parts of the country. The predicted showers are therefore good.
Grass growth in the past 2 weeks has not been huge and has even come to a standstill in some parts of the country. For grazing, this even meant that a number of hectares had to be added in order to maintain a sufficient supply of grass. This can be traced 1 to 1 to the precipitation shortage, which mainly takes place in the west of the country.
The grass is also having a hard time in those areas and with an average grass growth of 32 kilograms of dry matter per day, there is a sharp decline in growth. The many tons of grass that have already been harvested do not help either. "We see a shortage of nitrogen and potassium, especially on sandy soils. This is due to the good grass harvest so far," adds Leo Tjoonk, Agrifirm's roughage team leader. Kali ensures the moisture transport in the plant and when there is a shortage of potassium, the crude protein in the grass drops and is more susceptible to rust, for example.
Grass plant has become lazy
Due to the heavy rain in recent months, the grass plant has become lazy. The roots did not have to root deeply to absorb moisture, but were able to save this close to the surface. "When a good cut of grass is mowed and there is no more rain, the small plant has to take root deeper in a fast train and that is not easy," says Antoon Verhoeven, roughage specialist in the Southwest Netherlands of Limagrain.
For the participants of the Boerenbusiness Roughage Tour 2021 is a good grass year and we are already working towards the 4th cut of grass. Last Friday (week 29) the Limburg dairy farmer Kusters ensiled the third cut and the grassland was fertilized on Monday (week 30). "We immediately had a nice shower of rain on the injected land and if all goes well we can go after him again in 4 weeks", says Kusters.
Erik van der Deure
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