Grass growth is good on farms that got rain on Monday.
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Grass: Grass is still powering ahead on most farms, especially those that got reasonable quantities of rain last Monday. But on some dry farms in the midlands and south, growth has slowed considerably as land has dried out. We can expect to see growth rates drop on many other farms in the southern half of the country over the next week or so if sufficient rain doesn’t come in time. If your farm is looking like it’s going to burn up, my advice would be to hold rotation length at 25 to 30 days. To work out how much you should be grazing, divide the total available grazing area by your desired rotation length to get the area to be grazed per day. To achieve this, it might mean going back into a paddock that had been intended for silage. Remember, grass dry matters are very high and quality is reasonably good so what might look like a small cover actually has a lot of energy in it. The focus on dry farms must be on maintaining residuals and getting as long as possible out of every paddock. In my view, putting in a lot of supplement feed now is premature. Instead, hold rotation length, let farm cover drop and, if needs be, then put in feed when the rain and growth inevitably comes again. See more on Grass+
Breeding: Most farmers have now completed around six weeks of breeding with AI and so have let out or are about to let off stock bulls with the dairy herd. Some farmers continue to use AI for the first week after bulls go out and find that they get a better conception rate to the AI straw than the bull gets naturally. They seem to think the bulls are a bit too giddy after going out first and it takes them a couple of days to settle down to work properly. Other farmers are foregoing the cost of keeping stock bulls by using all AI. In such cases there’s a lot to be said for the short-gestation bulls. The shortest of these can knock up to six days off gestation length so a cow bulling today will calve as though she was served nearly a week ago – a big help in tightening up calving pattern. These bulls are more common in the dairy breeds but are available as beef AI too. Be extra careful when using beef bulls, whether AI or stock bulls, as they can easily add over a week to gestation length, which is something to be avoided. With longer gestation lengths come harder calvings and it takes longer for the already late-calving cow to recover.
Reseeds: Watch reseeds for signs of pests. The dry weather over the past few weeks has been a big help in preventing slug damage but leather jackets may still be a problem so walk reseeds for signs of damage. Earlier-sown reseeds will need to be sprayed soon. Docks are the most important weed to be killed and the ideal time is when they are between a €1 and a €2 coin in size. Obviously, only use clover-safe sprays if clover was sown too. It is best to target the fertiliser top-up around the time of spraying, to give the grass a boost.
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Grass: Grass is still powering ahead on most farms, especially those that got reasonable quantities of rain last Monday. But on some dry farms in the midlands and south, growth has slowed considerably as land has dried out. We can expect to see growth rates drop on many other farms in the southern half of the country over the next week or so if sufficient rain doesn’t come in time. If your farm is looking like it’s going to burn up, my advice would be to hold rotation length at 25 to 30 days. To work out how much you should be grazing, divide the total available grazing area by your desired rotation length to get the area to be grazed per day. To achieve this, it might mean going back into a paddock that had been intended for silage. Remember, grass dry matters are very high and quality is reasonably good so what might look like a small cover actually has a lot of energy in it. The focus on dry farms must be on maintaining residuals and getting as long as possible out of every paddock. In my view, putting in a lot of supplement feed now is premature. Instead, hold rotation length, let farm cover drop and, if needs be, then put in feed when the rain and growth inevitably comes again. See more on Grass+
Breeding: Most farmers have now completed around six weeks of breeding with AI and so have let out or are about to let off stock bulls with the dairy herd. Some farmers continue to use AI for the first week after bulls go out and find that they get a better conception rate to the AI straw than the bull gets naturally. They seem to think the bulls are a bit too giddy after going out first and it takes them a couple of days to settle down to work properly. Other farmers are foregoing the cost of keeping stock bulls by using all AI. In such cases there’s a lot to be said for the short-gestation bulls. The shortest of these can knock up to six days off gestation length so a cow bulling today will calve as though she was served nearly a week ago – a big help in tightening up calving pattern. These bulls are more common in the dairy breeds but are available as beef AI too. Be extra careful when using beef bulls, whether AI or stock bulls, as they can easily add over a week to gestation length, which is something to be avoided. With longer gestation lengths come harder calvings and it takes longer for the already late-calving cow to recover.
Reseeds: Watch reseeds for signs of pests. The dry weather over the past few weeks has been a big help in preventing slug damage but leather jackets may still be a problem so walk reseeds for signs of damage. Earlier-sown reseeds will need to be sprayed soon. Docks are the most important weed to be killed and the ideal time is when they are between a €1 and a €2 coin in size. Obviously, only use clover-safe sprays if clover was sown too. It is best to target the fertiliser top-up around the time of spraying, to give the grass a boost.
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