Underprinting
Early grazing (déprimage) is the early exploitation of grass, in grazed form, before the "ear at 5 cm" stage.
Advantages of early grazing
Early grazing allows :
- To improve the quality of forage by promoting tillering of grasses and increasing the proportion of leaves. The grass leaves are cut by the animal's teeth, so the tillering platform remains lower and gets more light, thus promoting the production of new tillers. At the next growth, the stems are shorter and more palatable.
- To give light to white clover by clearing out old grass.
- To create a staggering in the plots to avoid being overwhelmed too early. Early grazing delays the grass stage by 5 to 10 days. It is used by beef cattle and sheep farmers to obtain better quality hay. It also allows animals to be released earlier, while waiting for grass growth to start on plots intended to be grazed in spring.
- To remove surplus plots early in the spring.
Grass does not tiller naturally. It tries to produce an ear. It must therefore be forced by early grazing in spring or heavy grazing in autumn.
A grass can produce 5-6 tillers/year.
Tillering occurs close to the ground, at the base of the leaves exposed to sunlight.
Buds that can produce tillers do not develop if they are in the shade or if the plant has started to form an ear.
The right time to graze early?
First of all, it is important to put animals on a meadow that can support them so that they do not damage the cover crop with their feet! Early grazing can start as soon as the grass reaches 8 cm on the herbometer for cattle and 5 to 6 cm for sheep. The herd must leave the plot when the grass is grazed down to 4-5 cm.
Yield is not reduced provided that early grazing stops before the "ear at 5 cm" stage.
However, as soon as the 5 cm ear stage is reached, cattle and even earlier sheep can consume the ear forming inside the plant sheath. This is no longer called early grazing but heading grazing. If this happens, the meadow will produce up to half as much hay. On the other hand, regrowth will be leafy, thus of good quality. So if you aim for quantity, stop early grazing before the "ear at 5 cm" stage. If you want only leafy regrowth on a hay plot, you must go beyond this stage.
