Deferred grazing handbook: Messages from the Sustainable Farming Fund Project, Pasture Management in a Volatile World, July 2017 – September 2020

‘Deferred grazing’ is a management tool to maintain pasture quality on pastoral farms from mid-spring onwards. It involves dropping some paddocks out of the rotation to optimise grazing pressure on the remaining paddocks, so pasture quality is maintained. In the deferred paddocks, perennial ryegrass produces seeds. New tiller buds that form at the base of existing plants remain dormant over summer and develop into new tillers in autumn. The deferred pastures are grazed to low residuals at the end of the deferred period over one or two grazings (e.g. to 1500 kg DM/ha) so that the ryegrass seedlings and new ryegrass tillers are given access to light. They are treated as renewed pastures and are grazed carefully with light stock for short periods.