Grass growth rates increased slightly this week, with our measuring farms recording a nationwide average of 63kg DM/ha/day for the past seven days. As always, there is massive noise around this figure, based on regional weather and individual farm grassland management. Use the map for a guide to growth rates near you.

Thankfully, ground conditions will have improved across most of the country. While showers in the west remain persistent, we are not seeing the volumes of rain that fell last week. Though the ongoing moisture there might still be acting as a grazing handbrake, things are forecast to improve after some light rain on Friday morning and the weekend should be dry.

As ground does dry out, it’s important that we get in to clean out fields well while we can. Anything we leave behind now will still be there the next time we hit these paddocks. Only then, its feed value will have plummeted, it will have grown fibrous and unpalatable and there’s a chance that the weather will be much worse than it is now.

Clean paddocks out to 4cm now so that when we come back to these fields again, cattle will be looking at leaf right down to the clay. If you moved animals on early or skipped wet areas last week, go back and clean these fields out as soon as the ground allows. Do so with experienced grazers like cows – young stock will be slow to eat this material down.

Any remaining second-cut silage or paddocks earmarked as surplus should be removed ASAP. We need to get this after-grass back into the system and working for us while growth rates are good and ground conditions allow.

  • Grass growth 63kg DM/ha/day.
  • Forecast for dry weekend in the west.
  • Eat down paddocks skipped during wet weather.
  • Take any silage as soon as possible to get aftergrass back in.
  • Aim for 16-18 days of grass ahead.
  • Philip Keville

    Co Leitrim

    System suckler to weanling

    Soil type mostly heavy

    Average farm cover (kg DM/ha) 436

    Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 20

    Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 12

    Growth is definitely back with the recent wet weather but I still have plenty of grass ahead of me at the minute. I’m going with a bag of 18-6-12/acre after each grazing and I’ve all the slurry out on the second-cut ground. It’s been a great year for grass to date so hopefully ground conditions will hold up.

    I’m beginning to wean the strongest of my calves that calved in late December/early January and they’re well over the 400kg mark. My heifers in particular did a great thrive this season. I hope to finish the bulls under 16 months and sell the heifers in the back end. They’ve got some good Simmental breeding behind them with the stars to back it up, so hopefully they should do well.

    I’m going with 1t lime/acre in September and all my paddocks have been set up since joining the BETTER Farm programme. If I carry out the last of the shoring on a block of ground next year, I should be in a good position to drive up my stocking rate.

    Gareth McCormack

    Co Cavan

    System suckler to weanling

    Soil type mostly heavy

    Average farm cover (kg DM/ha) 846

    Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 16

    Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 54

    Grass is in very plentiful supply on the farm. Cows with the bull calves at foot are currently grazing after-grass from the 24 acres of silage I harvested on 16 July. I hope to move cows with the heifer calves at foot into this after-grass also in the next couple of days.

    There were six bales/acre on the crop so I was happy enough. I just got it baled before the weather broke and it was just starting to head out so I was very lucky. All 44 cows and heifers were scanned last week, with 42 of these in-calf. Stock bulls were let out to mop up after six weeks of AI. The two Charolais bulls were only responsible for bulling 10 cows so I was delighted that 32 cows held to the AI.

    I’m currently ploughing 10 acres of grassland. This was sprayed off four weeks ago and then shore drained with 3in pipe and 2in of drainage stone. I would have liked to have started ploughing before this but the bad weather hampered my plans.

    Ger O’Dwyer

    Tullamore Farm

    System suckler/calf to beef

    Soil type variable

    Average farm cover (kg DM/ha) 775

    Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 49

    Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 53

    Grass growth dropped a little over the past week. Recorded growth was 53kg/DM/ha, which is just above our demand figure of 49kg/DM/ha. We are trying to build covers and are going into some heavier covers. There are 16 days of grass ahead on the farm, which is on target. Average farm cover is 775kg DM/ha and the farm is currently stocked at 3.46 LU/ha. The farm needs to have 25 days ahead at the end of August. A bag of CAN has been spread over some recently grazed paddocks this week to try and build more grass. No more paddocks will be taken out for silage.

    All calves were dosed with a white oral drench two weeks ago. Some coughing was noticed in calves at weighing on 20 July and the decision was taken to dose. Calves are being encouraged to creep graze and weaning of first calved heifers will start in mid-September. Male calves weighed 216kg on 20 July and gained 1.3kg/day since birth and heifer calves weighed 200kg and gained 1.2kg/day since birth.

    Dwayne Stanley

    Co Tipperary

    System suckler to steer/calf to beef

    Soil type variable

    Average farm cover (kg DM/ha) 1,155

    Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 33

    Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 68

    We’re just getting occasional showers, so it’s not affecting ground condition. We have held off spreading fertiliser this past few weeks because we have a lot of surplus grass, with 260 bales taken out since the start of the grazing season. Before this, we were spreading one bag/acre of 18-6-12 to improve the P+K in the soil. I intend to go out with another round of fertiliser on 8 September to build covers for the autumn. I’m currently running a leader/follower system with my spring-born dairy cross calves in front and my autumn 2015 heifers and steers coming behind.

    The calves are currently being moved every two days with the heifers and steers coming behind to graze. I hope to have the heifers and steers gone to the factory at 24 months which hopefully should be before winter housing. The first of my autumn-calving cows calved on 2 August, with the last cow due to calve on 10 October. We intend to spray off 19 acres for reseeding in the next week.