Widespread heavy rain, wind and snow rendered grazing very difficult early in the week. Many farmers had no choice but to house cows on Sunday night and Monday. Others on drier land managed to get cows out for a few hours on Monday.

Most of those who continued grazing left cows out for a few hours and then brought them back into sheds or stood them off in yards like they did on the Greenfield Farm.

All of this is extra work and stress on cows but the aim is to keep grass in the cow’s diet.

A big factor in the decision is the type and quality of housing facilities on the farm.

The decision to bring cows in when cubicles are present is easier to make, and probably the right thing to do to prevent poaching.

But where appropriate housing is not available on the farm, the only thing to do is to persist with grazing and try your best to limit damage. This is the reality of spring grazing.

Despite the drop in temperatures, growth rates are holding up well; the average for the week on Pasturebase was 10kg/day.

Average farm cover is coming back at 850kg, which is still high for the time of year.

Farm covers will fall sharply over the next week or so as the area being grazed increases.

Wet weather will also have an effect on this as a proportion of grass will be walked into the soft ground, reducing utilisation.

Nitrogen

Farmers who spread nitrogen in late January are planning their second applications in the next week or so. Most will go out with 40 units of urea.

In some parts there was a delay in getting urea in February, so order it early if you don’t already have it.

Noel O’Toole, Kilimor, Co Galway

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.9

Growth Rate (kg/day) 10

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,021

Yield (kg/cow/day) NA

Fat % NA

Protein % NA

Supplement Fed (kg/cow/day) 3

Over 50% of the herd is now calved. Because I have a higher stocking rate than most, I plan the start of calving for 10 February. So far, calving is going really well and I will hopefully be getting some bull calves sold next week. We have 30% of the farm grazed, mostly lighter covers. Rain and sleet on Sunday and Monday made grazing difficult. Cows were stood off for a few hours on Monday but went out to a dry paddock on Monday evening. I fed a few bales of good-quality silage during the day which kept them content. We have only started sending milk to the co-op so have no figures back yet.

Steven Fitzgerald, Curtins Farm, Co Cork

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 2.9

Growth Rate (kg/day) 9

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,034

Yield (kg/cow/day) 21

Fat % 4.63

Protein % 3.79

Supplement Fed (kg/cow/day) 3

We have 71% of the cows calved which I am really happy about as we are well on track to have 90% calved in six weeks. Area grazed is only at 13% though, which is behind target. We have been on/off grazing since Friday as ground has become very soft. When we are on/off grazing we feed 2kg of silage in the shed just to keep cows content. Average farm cover is very high and in order to get area grazed we will probably reduce concentrate feed and let out dry cows when weather improves. Cows are milking very well at 1.76kg milk solids per cow.

Donal Patton, Ballyhaise, Co Cavan

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 2.9

Growth Rate (kg/day) 13

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 939

Yield (kg/cow/day) 16.3

Fat % 4.26

Protein % 3.85

Supplement (kg/cow/day) 3 meal, 2 silage

Ground conditions have deteriorated since last week. Cows were in full-time at the weekend but we went back out grazing again on Monday. Because we only have 10% grazed we need to focus on getting as many days at grass as we can. We are grazing in three-hour stages – after that too much damage occurs. Cows are held in the yard until 10am or 11am after morning milking, then let out to graze until 1pm or 2pm. They are then brought back into the shed until evening milking, then back out grazing from 5-8pm. We then bring them in to the shed where they get silage for a few hours.

Tom Lyng, Greenfield Farm, Kilkenny

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 2.85

Growth Rate (kg/day) 5

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 678

Yield (kg/cow/day) 17

Fat % 5.62

Protein % 3.9

Supplement Fed (kg/cow/day) 3

Despite the bad weather, grazing is going surprisingly well for us. We have a number of really dry paddocks and we target these for when it’s really wet. We stood the cows in front of the feed face for a few hours on Sunday and Monday when it was raining very heavily and then they went out when it stopped raining. I don’t want to put milking cows on the pad because we always get mastitis whenever we do that and the pad is dirtier this year because we haven’t cleaned it yet. We are beginning to get a few cases of scour in calves. Hopefully this will clear up soon.