A mix of heavy rainfall and some drier spells have been the norm of late right across the country. However, in the last few days we have seen a marked decrease in the night time temperatures, with this and combining with a shorter day and some wetter soils leading to growth beginning to ease slightly. Growth had been phenomenal, but this did not come without its challenges.
A flat grass wedge meant that when rain did hit, many paddocks had the same cover and became ready to graze at the one time. This was fine for many farms who required fodder anyway and they simply mowed these out.
What has been more of a challenge is keeping cattle settled at grass, with the leafy, low dry matter grass causing cattle to be unsettled.
Cattle have been quick to get through these covers and with a dip in growth, caution should be exercised for anyone looking to leave lighter stock out for longer that covers aren’t rapidly hoovered up by older stock. Some strategic housing may be in order sooner rather than later.
Jack Spillane –Tipperary Farm, Co Tipperary
We are still finishing off some heavy covers of grass that have not been grazed since we started to recover from the drought.
We mowed out 80 acres of heavier paddocks as surplus two weeks ago. We were tight enough on fodder before this, so this has put us in to a much healthier position.
We have 167 cattle in the shed on 4kg of concentrates and silage, with a draft to be done on these next week. There remain 101 yearling cattle, consisting of lighter traditional breed heifers and late maturing bullocks at grass with no concentrates.
Late maturing bullocks are going to be housed for the winter and grazed for a third summer this year to slaughter at 28 to 30 months.
Ground conditions are excellent and we would be hopeful of keeping weanlings out well into December.
System Dairy calf to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 978
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 24
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 23
Ger McSweeney – Milstreet, Co Cork
Ground is holding up relatively well, as even though we are getting some heavy rain we are getting dry days in between these. We have plenty of grass on farm and the plan is to prioritise getting the heavy covers grazed off while ground conditions are still good.
I began closing up paddocks at the end of September as I turn out yearling heifers early in spring, but with growth as it is I may need to come back around on these again before housing. I’m hopeful that we can keep stock out until the end of October and I will be fine for fodder if we can.
The beef heifers were killed out of the shed last week, with the bull calves being weaned and housed on 3kg of meal and good quality silage, having gained 1.39kg/day from birth to weaning. Heifer calves remain with their cows at grass.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 1,184
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 40
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 32
Ken Gill – Clonbollogue, Co Offaly
September was a lifesaver. We grew a lot of grass in the month, and even though it’s soft and cattle are moving through it fairly quickly, there’s still grass in front of them. Cows and calves are bunched with bulling heifers and are being moved every day.
These will all be housed in two weeks’ time ahead of breeding, as last year I left too little of a gap between housing and starting breeding.
All calving was done in seven weeks and a day, with just the last cow requiring veterinary assistance.
The yearling cattle will remain at grass until the last week of October and will then get a week to ten days on the stubble ground that has greened up nicely with grass. They will then go on to kale until mid-December. I have more grass at this time of the year than normal.
System Organic suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 670
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 32
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 21