Grass is still growing well around the country, but after the weekend’s downpours utilisation is becoming a huge issue. Most of the weekend’s rain fell in the south of the country, with 20mm and 17mm recorded on Saturday for Moorepark and Oakpark respectively.

Further north, Grange and Ballyhaise both recorded rainfall of 6.5mm. In the west, Athenry recorded 11mm for the same day. Dry days since have led to an improvement in conditions and the outlook for the rest of the week is generally good.

According to forecasts, next Monday will be one of the worst days for a while, particularly in the south and west, with over an inch of rain forecast in places. If the promised volumes do indeed materialise, stock will become unsettled and do quite a bit of walking, which will damage any vulnerable ground.

Take action in advance. Move cattle on to dry ground, or indoors temporarily. There will be minimal performance effects where cattle are housed for a day or two. Where older calves are eating creep meal, consider weaning. Move their dams into the house this week. Weather-wise, the rest of this week should be ideal for weaning calves. Only remove a small number of cows from a grazing group at a time to minimize stress on calves. The forecast for the remainder of next week is generally good, which will give ground a chance to recover.

It’s important that cattle are kept moving – short two- to three-day allocations are best. The longer we leave cattle on wet fields, the more severe the damage they will do. On short grazing bouts, cattle will not have as much time to dirty the grass and any damage will be from grazing activity and not from endless walking in search of fresh, clean material. The most important point to remember with this strategy is that there will be damage done, but it’s only aesthetic damage. Only the top few inches will be affected and ground will begin to recover in the days immediately after cattle leave.

Short grazing allocations protect our regrowth – a fundamental to successful grassland management strategies.

Tom Halpin

Co Meath

Land type Dry

After heavy rain all day Saturday and early Sunday, things have begun to dry out here. Our land is dry in nature, but that weekend really tested us. There are lots of stock groups on the farm and in heavier-stocked areas there was damage done to the ground. We’ve had to keep stock moving on quickly to keep further damage to a minimum.

Grass supply at present is decent – there are around 25 days ahead of stock. That being said, there are lots of stock groups on this farm and things can get interesting in the back-end. I have summer-calving cows, in the midst of breeding at present, whose grass demand is only going to rise. Cattle were weighed last week. Beef bulls are weighing 606kg as a group. We’ll slaughter the first batch at the end of October and the second half a month later. Spring bull calves are tipping the scales at 330kg, which I’m happy with. They’ve a month to go to weaning. If the ground turns soft we can fast track this and lock in cows.

Joe Murray

Co Roscommon

Land type Heavy

We grew 43kg DM/ha/day this week, which is good given the time of year. Average farm cover is at 655kg DM/ha. As a whole, ground is extremely soft: it’s jelly-like in places. However, I’ve been using a new product that encourages the proliferation of soil humus, worm activity and root growth on one of my out-farms and the results have been fantastic. The farm in question has really improved in terms of the sod’s integrity and its grass growing ability. Cattle on this farm are doing minimal damage and the block has grown almost 14t DM/ha to date in 2016.

There is more power in the grass and my calf weight gains are improving as a result. The product I used can be obtained in granular from, or as a mixture for slurry. No lime, P or K are spread while the product is going out and it costs around €50 per acre annually. It has gotten my ground back in working condition and I will begin to spread it on the rest of the farm soon.

David Mitchell

Co Monaghan

Land type Heavy

While the rest of the country seemed to get saturated over the weekend, we didn’t fare too badly. About 14mm of rain fell here on Saturday. Thankfully, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were relatively good days. My ground is heavy and needs as long as possible to recover after a wet period. I have one group of heifers that did a bit of damage to a heavy paddock over the weekend. They were moved on Monday night, leaving behind quite a bit of grass. I’m not worried, however. I should get back in here in the next couple of weeks to clean things up.

Three of my autumn calvers have calved to date – all are OK so far. The creep feeder has gone out with the spring cows and calves, though there hasn’t been much interest shown towards it as of yet.

When all of the calves are eating concentrate I will wean cows in to take pressure off the ground. I’ll pull five or six cows in from each group at a time. All of my vaccinations are complete at this point.

James Kenneally

Co Cork

Land Type Dry

We had a wet weekend and though the days since have been dry, there’s a fog about that’s keeping the moisture in. Ground under stock has been challenging recently. We’re not getting enough good days between the rain. I’m having to move grazing stock on quickly. Hopefully I’ll get back around to these paddocks before closing up begins in mid-October.

Half of my cows are in for weaning. It’s a bit early for me but the wet conditions were making things difficult underfoot. In a couple of days calves will go back out and cows will stay inside. The cows have done their job at this stage and have built up good condition. They’ll get through the winter on moderate-quality silage. Once calves are eating meal and silage on their own, and a good day comes, I’ll turn them out.

Thankfully my crops are cut, though I have straw on the ground for baling over a month at this stage. Good-quality straw might be hard to come by this winter.

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Grass+ dairy: Heavy rain makes grazing difficult