Early turnout in the spring boosted grass yields during the 2018 growing season on a Co Tyrone dairy farm that is being used for research trials by seed company DLF.
The top two-performing paddocks on David Hunter’s farm near Newtownstewart grew over 18t dry matter per hectare (DM/ha) in 2018, over 2tDM/ha more than the next best paddocks.
“The two best-performing paddocks were the first ones grazed in the spring which allowed them to be grazed 11 times this year, compared to 10 grazings in most other paddocks,” said Damian McAllister from DLF.
As well as having a relatively dry farm, David has good grazing infrastructure which allows him to get his 85-cow spring-calving dairy herd out to grass early.
Cows were turned out on 22 February this year and, although housed for a few weeks in March, they were at grass full-time until 31 October and were grazing during the day until 19 November.
David’s farm is one of four commercial farms across Ireland that is used by DLF to trial grass varieties and mixtures under real farm conditions.
Swards on the Hunter farm are all relatively young as the entire grazing block was reseeded six years ago.
“Some farmers put off reseeding because they think they can’t afford to have paddocks out of production. But David was able to reseed two paddocks this year and still grow over 10tDM/ha in them,” Damian said.
Both paddocks were reseeded with a mixture of the late heading tetraploids Aspect and Solas. Tetraploids are fast growing and palatable for livestock but can produce open swards.
However, Damian maintained that sward density can vary widely across different tetraploid varieties and some tetraploids are less open than low-density diploid varieties.
David said the reseed has worked well because it is in the driest paddocks on his farm. “I would be wary of going for straight tetraploid mix in other paddocks,” he added.
During the 2018 grazing season, David grew 14.6tDM/ha on the milking platform, which is over twice the NI average.
Swards on the Hunter farm are all relatively young as the entire grazing block was reseeded six years ago when the farm was converted from suckler beef. Some overseeding has also been done since then, and David has been active in soil sampling and improving soil fertility.
“The cold weather in the spring held grass growth back for us but the dry summer was not a major issue. We got some rain which helped growth and it never dropped below 30kgDM/ha/day,” he said.
Read more
Dairy management: watch your diet
Cows dried off in Greenfield Kilkenny
Early turnout in the spring boosted grass yields during the 2018 growing season on a Co Tyrone dairy farm that is being used for research trials by seed company DLF.
The top two-performing paddocks on David Hunter’s farm near Newtownstewart grew over 18t dry matter per hectare (DM/ha) in 2018, over 2tDM/ha more than the next best paddocks.
“The two best-performing paddocks were the first ones grazed in the spring which allowed them to be grazed 11 times this year, compared to 10 grazings in most other paddocks,” said Damian McAllister from DLF.
As well as having a relatively dry farm, David has good grazing infrastructure which allows him to get his 85-cow spring-calving dairy herd out to grass early.
Cows were turned out on 22 February this year and, although housed for a few weeks in March, they were at grass full-time until 31 October and were grazing during the day until 19 November.
David’s farm is one of four commercial farms across Ireland that is used by DLF to trial grass varieties and mixtures under real farm conditions.
Swards on the Hunter farm are all relatively young as the entire grazing block was reseeded six years ago.
“Some farmers put off reseeding because they think they can’t afford to have paddocks out of production. But David was able to reseed two paddocks this year and still grow over 10tDM/ha in them,” Damian said.
Both paddocks were reseeded with a mixture of the late heading tetraploids Aspect and Solas. Tetraploids are fast growing and palatable for livestock but can produce open swards.
However, Damian maintained that sward density can vary widely across different tetraploid varieties and some tetraploids are less open than low-density diploid varieties.
David said the reseed has worked well because it is in the driest paddocks on his farm. “I would be wary of going for straight tetraploid mix in other paddocks,” he added.
During the 2018 grazing season, David grew 14.6tDM/ha on the milking platform, which is over twice the NI average.
Swards on the Hunter farm are all relatively young as the entire grazing block was reseeded six years ago when the farm was converted from suckler beef. Some overseeding has also been done since then, and David has been active in soil sampling and improving soil fertility.
“The cold weather in the spring held grass growth back for us but the dry summer was not a major issue. We got some rain which helped growth and it never dropped below 30kgDM/ha/day,” he said.
Read more
Dairy management: watch your diet
Cows dried off in Greenfield Kilkenny
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