All of our Grass+ beef farmers this week are mowing out surplus paddocks, as growth has kicked into top gear with the recent heat. The increase in growth is coming right when grass begins to shoot out anyway, so mowing out these fields will yield excellent quality silage, correct stemmy paddocks and hopefully reduce the need for topping in the coming weeks.
While many will argue that in a year like this mowing out surplus is too expensive, the real value in mowing out paddocks is in keeping the remainder of the farm in check. Grazing high covers now will yield to poorer growth rates in stock, as well as leading to more corrective action having to be taken later on. While most paddocks will generally have to get a run of a mower at some stage, be it for bales or topping, it is still preferred that as little grass as is possible is wasted before going in with a topper.
Jack Spillane, Tipperary Calf Farm , Co Tipperary
We pitted our first-cut silage just over two weeks ago and it yielded better than expected. We are hoping to mow out about 22 acres of surplus grass here tomorrow (Thursday) and get it baled up before the weather breaks.
A further 60 acres of ground have been closed up for second-cut silage; we alternated ground between first- and second-cut, so this has yet to be cut this year. 70 units of N and two bags of 0-7-30 were spread on this as we don’t have huge volumes of slurry on-farm.
Thirty units N/acre were spread 10 days ago, with ground that had been cut for silage topped up with 0-7-30.
Our pre-grazing yield is high at 1,700-1,800kg DM/ha, but we are just trying to buy a few days until we can get in to after grass.
System: Dairy calf to beef
Soil Type:Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha):867
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day):67
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day):31
Niall O’Meara, Killimor, Co Galway
Grass supply on-farm has rocketed over the last week; 12.5 acres were mown out 10 days ago and I will hopefully mow out another 7.5 acres this evening (Wednesday) or tomorrow. The ground cut 10 days ago yielded four bales/acre, while the paddocks still to be mowed are probably going to yield closer to six bales/acre, with covers around 3,000kg DM/ha. There is some stem in these paddocks, so mowing them out will do two things: clear off the stem and yield good-quality bales that still have some fibre to keep autumn-calving cows rumens right.
On cut ground, we went back with 0-7-30. 12 units N/acre was given to about 28 acres to keep grass lush for the weanlings and yearlings. I have some paddocks at 1,700-1,800kg DM/ha that I would hope to mow out next week.
System :Suckler to weanling
Soil Type:Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha):1,102
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day):48
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day):53
Shaun Diver, Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly
We are going to take out some paddocks at 1,700-1,800kg DM/ha today (Wednesday) or tomorrow, to try and get farm cover under control. If we were to graze these paddocks now, they would have to be topped afterwards to correct. There is a real risk that lamb thrive will drop off a cliff edge if we are grazing heavier covers. We are dropping pre-grazing yields back to 1,200kg DM/ha, as grazing cover of 1,500kg DM/ha is just pushing the next cover too high.
First-cut pit silage hasn’t been harvested, with the aim being to mow and pit this next week, weather permitting.
Repeat rates in the mature cows have been low, but we had a disappointing scan with the synchronised heifers at 52%. Many of these failed to show heats pre-scanning, but are now back bulling again.
System :Suckler to beef
Soil Type:Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha):1,082
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day):71
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day):47