"Don't flip a coin, know both sides before you decide"
Grass and measuring
It is a tried and proven fact that grass is the cheapest and most nutritious feed you have, and you should get as much good quality grass into your cow as possible.
And you already know that measuring (putting a number on the amount of available grass in your pasture) and budgeting (making decisions about grazing every week and setting goals every week about the amount of grass in your pasture) grass is always critical to the reduce costs and your profits in volatile markets.
But despite constantly measuring and budgeting for grass, you ultimately don't achieve your goals.
Does this happen to you every time, sometimes or even occasionally?
Running a farm has multiple and conflicting requirements.
- FirstEvents beyond your control and unpredictable can disrupt your grazing plans. For example, the weather changes, such as a lot of rain. Water-tolerant pastures reduce grazing time.
- secondFor calculation purposes you will need accurate data from each paddock (before and after grazing mass and leaf monitoring) to help you make decisions. Collecting this data is time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive.
The obstacles are many.
Are you confused by suboptimal grazing decisions?
Can grazing management ever be perfected?
You deserve to know the truth and I want to help you with this decision making to achieve your optimal grazing level and profit through pasture measurement.
The need for an effective grass measuring instrument
You can maintain high-quality, green leafy grass in your paddocks by walking through the meadow every week and measuring the grass. There are many ways to do thatmeasure your grass.
Oh yes, the possibilities are one too many.
It is only natural that as a farmer you immediately opt for methods that you find cheap, easy in design or portable, such as the Eyeballing/Visual Estimation method and the Quadrant Cut method.
But the question here is:
“Do you have everything you need to make effective grazing decisions and get those profits from your pasture, cheap, simple and easy to transport?”
You will know the answer immediately after reading this article.
I've explained it beforeDisadvantages of the Eyeballing Technique.
Now let's look at the pros and cons of using the Quadrant Cut method for measuring grass so you can determine the optimal feeding levels you deserve.
Quadrant Cutting and Weighing Method explained
What is the quadrant?
Any frame (usually square, but can also be rectangular or circular) used to define an area of grassland, regardless of its shape, is called a square (or quadrant).
The process:
The process of measuring grass using the quadrant mowing method (also known as the mow and road method) involves cutting grass that is in the quadrant, weighing it and applying mathematical formulas to calculate the grass yield in kg DM/ha to be estimated. The steps below explain how to do this.
- Randomly place three to ten quadrants across all your folds. The more quadrants you use, the more accurate your result will be. The square can have an area between 0.1 m² and 1.0 m².
- Cut the grass that falls within the square to ground level, to a length between 3.5 and 4 cm; The grass within each square is calledattempt, the representative of the total amount of grass in your pasture.
- Harvest this monster grass (which is in the square) down to ground level (cut between 1 and 1/2 inches high) and place it in a bag to weigh. (monster 1,monster 2,monster 3)
- Record the fresh weight of each sample (weight 1)
- Dry the three grass samples (dry at 80 degrees Celsius for 20 hours or place in a microwave for 1 minute) and record the dry weight of each sample (weight 2)
Useful tips:
Tip (1)- When selecting a representative area, ensure that the areas you wish to assess represent your entire pasture. This can be achieved by walking along an imaginary transect line (diagonal or arbitrary - as shown in the image below)
Tip (2)- If you are confident that the area is uniform, 8 to 10 assessments are sufficient, but if there is a lot of variation, you should make at least 15 assessments or more depending on your folding area.
Tip (3)- When mowing grass, use a sharp hand cutting instrument; Do not use lawn mowers as they misplace when mowing and produce incorrect results.
Tip (4)- DM represents the average dry matter content as a percentage of the total feed weight. This is important because moisture content does not translate into nutrition. DM values therefore give you more accurate values for nutrient intake.
The rollout:
It's always about numbers! You've mowed and measured the grass.
What are you doing then?
How can I know my dividend?
How do I pay for my grass?
Let's do some math.
First, calculate the average weight of the three samples and average them.
Avg. weight= (weight 1 of sample 1 + weight 1 of sample 2 + weight 1 of sample 3) / 3
Following, to multiply the DM yield by the average weight per quadrant converted to the dry matter percentage in the number of quadrants per hectare.
DM yield or kg DM/ha in the paddock = Grass weight (kg) x DM% x 40,000 (40,000 quadrant pieces make up one hectare)
For example, if your average quadrant grass weight is 0.25 kg with a DM content of 20%, then your available grass cover will0,25 kg x 0,20 x 40.000 = 2.000 kg DS/ha.
Here are some general statistics about the Cut Grass DM content.
Calculation of the grass cover of your entire grassland; over all your folds.
- Measure the amount of grass in each pasture, i.e. the DM yield (=1,600 kg DM/ha, taking into account the example above).
- Multiply the DM yield of each paddock by the area of the paddock in ha 1,600 x 1.6 ha = 2,560 kg DM. This gives you the grass cover that is available everywhere in the paddock.
- Calculate the DM yield for all pastures in your pasture in the same way.
- Provide a summary of all DM dividends in the paddock
- Calculate the sum of all your paddock areas (pasture areas), in hectares
- Calculate the total grass cover of your lawn, your Grass Wedge, using this formula:
Grass wedge = Sum of all your dry matter yields (value 1) / Total area in ha
However, this only indicates the availability of your pasture. It can help you put together a visual grass wedge (see image below) to help you create effective rotation plans.
I know. The Quadrant Cut method of measuring grass sounds like a lot of work. Especially if you have to do this for more than 200 hectares every week.
But is it worth it?
To answer that, let's look at the pros and cons of implementing the quadrant cut method.
Advantages of the Quadrant Cutting Method
Quadrants are:
- very accurate, and therefore mainly used for research
- easy to make, you can do it yourself
- easy to use, no user training required as very few decisions need to be made by the observer
- easy to carry, in addition to paper and pencil, only a square and cut-out sheet are included
- cheap
- suitable for measuring grass because plants are stationary, inactive species and you do not need a counting device
- can reduce the risk of cloud cover affecting satellite images
Disadvantages of the quadrant cutting method
On the other hand, quadrants also:
- require on-site presence to carry out work in the field.
- are time consuming/slow and expensive for large rangelands (the average New Zealand dairy farm and sheep farm are 172.2ha and 443ha respectively).
- are not suitable for uneven grass populations. Grass covers are constantly changing with the seasons and weather. Sizes can vary as they grow, requiring frequent measurements over long sampling windows.
- are prone to errors - quadrants may be too large, too small, or incorrectly spaced. When measuring, grass quality is not taken into account (dry or dead grass has a low nutritional value).
- can inadvertently damage paddock grass during harvesting and improper placement.
What's next?
By regularly measuring the growth of your pasture, you can earn an additional €385 hectares per year. So however you do this, it will be worth your time, effort and money. That said, there are more time- and cost-effective ways to measure pasture growth.
A quadrant cutting method is probably more suitable for research or for small areas. If you are a commercial rancher, you may need a different method of measuring your pasture to gain that extra profit. If you would like to learn more about earning extra profit from your pasture,Then consider downloading this free e-book now.
The Pasture.io team is always ready to help you grow your pasturemeasurements on autopilot.
Until we meet again, Happy Farming!
- Pasture.io's dedicated team, 09/17/2020
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