While many farms last week were in an OK position grass wise, another week of dry and hot weather has taken its toll now on growth. Paddocks are burning up, and anything grazed since the start of the dry spell has been slow to bounce back, while even grass with a cover on it is wilting away on dry farms.
Grass has also been extremely stressed out and has stemmed out in some cases. Taking out these paddocks is a major no until we see more rain on the horizon.
As said before, there is little worse than baling silage one week and feeding it out the week after. Strip grazing or pre-mowing paddocks should see good utilisation levels and paddocks should be well cleaned out for the next rotation.
There is very little rainfall forecast across the country, and predicted growths are set to take another hammering this week. Farmers will have to supplement stock, or temporarily house some, to ease the demand on farm to try and hold cover as best as possible.
Trevor Boland – Dromard, Co Sligo
Growth has slowed up a lot, with no rain for the last two weeks or more, but this slow down generally happens in July anyway.
At the minute it is about trying to match growth and demand as best as possible. I have one paddock taken out of the wedge that has gone too strong for cows.
Towards the end of June a lot of paddocks were taken out and the farm was reset as such, with the quality of grass now better than a month ago.
I tend not to spread any fertiliser at this time of year, and will hold off for now as I expect the moisture to lift growth a bit.
Cows have begun calving, with eight calved outdoors to date. Bull weanlings are still on farm on concentrates and quality grass and will likely be sold in the next month. We would hope for a lift in prices by then.
System Suckler to weanling/ beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 674
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 20
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 30
Ger McSweeney – Millstreet, Co Cork
Grass is burning up here now, with growth having halved in the space of a week.
Grass is really starting to stress and head out, and while our farm cover looks good there are a lot of paddocks there that we would ideally take out if growth was better.
We will have to assess as to where growth is after the weekend’s rain and see. It should help somewhat but to what extent will be the question.
I’m currently strip grazing covers and getting good clean outs. Empty cows have been weaned and will move on to a finishing diet in the next week or so, while creep ration has been introduced to the bulls as I feel milk yield has been dropping off.
Water is as important as anything these days, and it’s a challenge where paddocks have smaller troughs.
System Suckler to weanling/beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 780
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 33
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 32
John Dunne – Portarlington, Co Laois
The weather has left grass growth slowed up so we made the decision to put the best of the second-cut silage ground into the pit with the remaining area being grazed with the cattle.
We have 75% of our winter forage supply in the yard and hope to cut the red clover ground once, if not twice, more. We will go for a late cut of silage if we can, to bulk up supply.
Currently we are not supplementing cattle with forage and if the forecasted rain comes next week, we should escape having to feed silage. Nitrogen is ready to spread, but we’re holding off until the rain comes.
Cattle remain content in this weather and when the weather changes, we will begin faecal sampling all the calves for worms. Spring barley is about two-weeks away from being cut, which will keep us busy.
System Suckler/dairy calf to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 580
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 27
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 37