Average growth rates are holding steady at around 76kg/ha/day on our Grass + farms, but there is a fair variation from farm to farm. Some farms have dipped below demand with growth rates in the mid 50s.

Growth rates normally decrease at this time of year anyway, after the grass plant heads out. Allied to this, a lot of farmers would have cut surplus paddocks and topped in the fine weather last week. This reduces growth rate also, but for many farmers this is no harm as generating unnecessary surplus grass costs money.

Widespread heavy rain and mild humid temperatures earlier this week should help to boost growth again. Maintain grass quality by keeping the focus on residuals. The target post-grazing height for the next few months should be 4cm. This means that areas between dungpads are very well cleaned out – down to the floor – and that areas around dungpads are well clipped.

Three grazings per paddock is optimal. This means that the herd is well fed for two grazings and works hard on the last grazing, but then compensates again at the next grazing.

Farmers who consistently graze tight on 12- or even 24-hour breaks are affecting production. To avoid affecting production, allocations have to be top notch, with no margin of error – not easy to achieve without rigorous measurement.

Most farms have some paddocks that will need to be cut in order to correct quality. Take a note of these paddocks when doing the farm walk and aim to take them out as bales at some point over the next few weeks. Avoid the temptation to pre-mow these stemmy paddocks as quality down the cow’s mouth will drop.

Fertiliser wise, most farmers are continuing to spread between 20 and 30 units/acre of nitrogen after grazing. Those that are trying to build up soil fertility are going with a second application of two bags per acre of 18:6:12 or equivalent around now.

  • Average growth rate is around 76kg/ha/day.
  • Mild and humid weather should boost growth rates.
  • Keep cows on 36 hour grazings and target a post grazing residual of 4cm.

    • Shane Leane

    Teagasc Curtins Farm

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.92

    Growth rate (kg/day) 57

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 167

    Yield (l/cow/day) 19

    Fat % 4.37

    Protein % 3.54

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.55

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0.2

    Growth rate dropped this week. The farm was beginning to burn up a bit over the weekend after all the heat last week but heavy rain earlier this week will help to prevent that from happening. We have about 23% of the farm closed for silage and this will be cut over the next few weeks. We intend to take out a few paddocks for reseeding in the autumn. We are spreading 20 units/acre of nitrogen after grazing.

    We are now on week nine of breeding and early scanning data shows that about 60% of the herd is in-calf after the first four weeks, but this is subject to change.

    Donal Patton

    Teagasc Ballyhaise

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.69

    Growth rate (kg/day) 76

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 151

    Yield (l/cow/day) 20.4

    Fat % 4.25

    Protein % 3.58

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.65

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1

    Growth rate had dropped a bit last week but we got plenty of rain over the last few days so it should keep steady now for another while.

    We skipped two more paddocks this week. There are more that I would like to skip over but can’t for the moment, because we would be too tight. I don’t want to set average farm cover below 150kg/cow at the moment. We are spreading between 23 and 25 units/acre of nitrogen after grazing.

    Last week, we spread urea, this week we are on CAN. SCC is 84k and TBC is 9k.

    John Russell

    Co Donegal

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.9

    Growth rate (kg/day) 80

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 158

    Yield (l/cow/day) 25.5

    Fat % 3.97

    Protein % 3.47

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.95

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3

    After doing the grass walk on Monday, we had a growth rate of 80kg and a demand of 57kg and 180kg/cow of an average farm cover so we took out one paddock that had a cover of 2,000kg. We’ve been taking out paddocks for silage nearly every week and we have 155 bales made so far this year.

    Grass quality is good and cows are milking well. We are on 36-hour grazings and clean-out is reasonably good. We put in a few extra spur roads two weeks ago to improve paddock access. The weather in this part of Donegal has been good so far so we can’t complain.

    Pat Kennedy

    Co Tipperary

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.18

    Growth rate (kg/day) 85

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 155

    Yield (l/cow/day) 22.6

    Fat % 4.08

    Protein % 3.49

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.77

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1

    We were very tight for grass last week as we were getting dry. Average farm cover fell to 110kg/cow so we fed 3kg of meal for a few days but the rain earlier this week has turned the farm inside out.

    Cows are grazing covers of 1,300kg and quality is good. Some of the fields were topped to clean them up and we are back skipping over paddocks for bales again.

    We are spreading 25 units per acre of Selenigrass after grazing.

    The bull went out on 15 June and the plan is to do 11 weeks of breeding in total. So far, it seems to be going well.