Growth rates rise after a mixed week

Most of the last seven days brought fantastic weather, but since Tuesday scattered and often heavy showers have dominated the skies. Average grass growth rates lifted this week to 28kg/day. Average farm covers on our Grass+ farms have fallen considerably in the space of the week as demand on farms has increased, with more grazing and less supplement being fed. However, it is still high (greater than 800kg/ha) on many farms.

Ideally, you would like it to be in or around 500kg/ha by the start of the second round, which on most farms should be in the first 10 days of April. On later farms, this will be delayed, because there will be insufficient re-growths on the first-grazed paddocks due to later turnout.

Keep the focus on hitting grazing residuals. There should be no visible dungpads left from first-round grazing. It is hard to keep this discipline when you need to get more area grazed. Consider bringing the maiden heifers onto the milking platform to speed up grazing if you have a high farm cover or a small amount of the farm grazed.

Farms on target for farm cover are in a great position. They need to ration out area until the start of the second round. Everyone should do a grass walk once a week or every five days. The key is to know when you can start the second round of grazing. This depends on the covers available.

Growth rates will take off some time in April, and you want to keep ahead of this to ensure quality. When average farm cover is 500kg on the grazed area and there is 1,100 to 1,200kg on the first few paddocks and growth rate is close to demand – it is safe to drive on.

Teagasc Curtins

Co Cork

Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9

Growth rate (kg/day) 23

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 796

Yield (l/cow/day) 23

Fat % 5.15

Protein % 3.35

Milk solids (kg/cow) 2.05

Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0

Cows have been on all-grass diet since Monday. Growth rate wasn’t as high as we expected, but since the rain and softer weather came on Tuesday it has really increased.

We have just short of 90% of the farm grazed and 93% of the cows are calved. We are currently grazing covers of 2,500kg, which isn’t ideal. This probably is hitting protein a bit. The plan is to start the second round on 7 April.

There is a cover of about 1,000kg on the first-grazed paddock. Cows are on either a 12-hour or a 24-hour allocation, depending on the paddock and weather.

Birr Castle,

Co Offaly

Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.8

Growth rate (kg/day) 23

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 567

Yield (l/cow/day) 22.7

Fat % 4.91

Protein % 3.41

Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.95

Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 2

We have 73% of the farm grazed and our cover is low enough, so we don’t have too many high covers remaining.

The plan is to start the second round on 6 April. Demand is 37kg and growth for last week was 23kg, but I expect the farm is growing more now. We were feeding 4kg of meal but reduced it to 2kg.

We have 76 units of nitrogen spread per acre, so the farm is well set up for growth. In all, 86% of the herd is calved and cows are on good body condition score and milking well.

Teagasc Clonakilty,

Co Cork

Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.76

Growth rate (kg/day) 38

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 797

Yield (l/cow/day) 29

Fat % 4.53

Protein % 3.37

Milk solids (kg/cow) 2.36

Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0

As expected, grass growth has taken off. We have three paddocks left to graze in the first round, but we are going to skip over two of these and cut them for silage next month.

These have covers of 2,500kg. There is a cover of 1,200kg in the first paddock grazed in the second round and we have a high average farm cover, so we are in a good position. All supplement has been removed and cows are on grass only. The forecast isn’t great for the next few days, so we will probably graze some lighter covers first and then go back to the high cover.

Duncormick,

Co Wexford

Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.1

Growth rate (kg/day) 30

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 720

Yield (l/cow/day) 21

Fat % 5.04

Protein % 3.44

Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.83

Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 2

We have 80% of the farm grazed and over 90% of the cows calved. We have managed to get grass into cows every day this spring and have only fed 16 round bales of silage to the milkers. We got through this by on/off grazing and while damage was done at times over the whole farm it’s relatively small. We have 70 units of urea spread and the farm is getting one bag/acre of 23:10:0. I will have a very high stocking rate in the next round, so I need more fertiliser spread than most farmers. The plan is to start the second round as planned on 4 April.