David Brady, Stradone, Co Cavan

Cavan dairy farmer David Brady has 95% of the herd calved, with the remaining cows due to calve this week. Grass growth has been about average so far this year compared with other years on this farm. However, ground conditions have been poor relative to other years, with no grazing in the first two weeks of April.

No poaching damage has been done to the grazing block and cows are back out grazing day and night, with an average growth rate of 23kg DM/ha over the past 10 days. The average farm cover is 539kg DM/ha, with three paddocks earmarked for silage not included in this figure.

With these paddocks out, the herd stocking rate is 2.89LU/ha. The option to graze some of this silage ground still remains for another week or two, as David has split the fertiliser application on these three paddocks to give him the flexibility to bring them back into the grazing rotation if needed.

However, with an average cover of 539 (185/cow), it is not expected to need this silage area, as the herd grass demand is 44kg/ha/day and the farm average cover is still well over 150kg/cow for this time of year, so he should be able to stretch until growth improves further.

David took the decision last week to reduce concentrate fed to cows, with ideal grazing conditions on the farm. The objective is to encourage cows to clean out the heavy covers currently being grazed. Current milk performance of the herd is 30.25 litres at 4% fat and 3.24% protein (2.26kg MS). See Table 1.

To date, the grazing block has received 90 units of nitrogen per acre, with silage ground getting two bags per acre of 25:4:0 compound fertiliser.

Cows are due to finish the first round this week, with the herd currently grazing the final paddock.

The second round is due to start on 30 April, with adequate regrowth now on the paddocks grazed first. Notably, paddocks grazed midway through the first rotation have average covers of 700kg/ha, which are not far behind the earlier grazed areas. This is a direct result of the start-stop growth characteristic of the season.

Plans are in place to reseed two paddocks of a rented farm which is used for grazing. Currently, some improvement work (drainage and fencing) is in progress on this land and if dry conditions hold, the plough will move in shortly.

Robin Clements, Trillick, Co Tyrone

Relatively good ground conditions are allowing Robin to get on top of grazing on the home farm, with 110 cows out grazing on the 40ha block. Average cover is 653kg DM/ha with herd demand at 44kg/cow/day (2.75 cows/ha).

Cows are cleaning out paddocks well, so grass regrowth quality will be high. Growth rate for the last seven days has averaged 24kg/day.

For the first half of April, ground conditions only allowed on-off grazing, with cows spending more time in the house than out.

The knock-on effect of this is that Robin is only finishing the first rotation now and started the second rotation on Tuesday this week.

An additional 50 cows are still inside, with grass being cut and hauled daily from an outfarm 10 minutes away.

In an ideal world, Robin would have these cows out grazing day and night on the home farm. However, with only 100 acres available to graze at the home farm, the option of grazing all cows on this would push the stocking rate in excess of 4LU/ha, which Robin suggests is not viable or sustainable for his heavy clay-type soil.

Instead, Robin is using the outfarm, which is a new piece of land purchased last year, to grow grass and then to cut and carry this grass to the 50 cows which are in the shed on the home farm.

One load per day is required for the 50 cows and approximately one hour is needed to cut the load and feed it to cows back at the farm.

The outfarm needs reseeding, which is also planned for this year. Long term, a decision must be taken on potentially developing the outfarm into a separate unit.

The autumn-calving cows grazing on Robin’s home farm are getting 1kg of meal/day, while the 50 cows inside are on 3kg of concentrate on top of the fresh grass.

The concentrate is an 18% protein meal, with plans to reduce this to 16% or lower for the next meal bin refill.

The 50 cows indoors are cows which calved during December, with a small number calved in November. The average calving date is 12 December, so they are over four months into lactation.