Last week’s weather has alleviated a lot of pressure on the farms in terms of the backlog of fertilizer to be spread and cattle turnout.

Ground has dried considerably on most farms, although there are still a number of fields that are not suitable for grazing just yet.

Where land has dried out enough to carry livestock, light autumn weanlings and light heifer and steer yearling cattle are now at grass permanently, albeit in limited numbers.

Cattle are being turned out to grass covers of 1,200kg to 2,000kg of dry matter per hectare, or around 8cm to 12cm in grass height.

It is important that these covers are removed first. If not grazed, the heavier covers run the risk of having increased dead matter building up in the sward which will inhibit any further growth, even if fertilizer is applied.

The programme farms have opted to spread fertilizer after these swards are grazed as they would have a lower growth response to nitrogen than medium covers of 800kg to 1,000kg DM.

Medium covers of the programme farms are receiving around 27 to 30 units of nitrogen per acre, which is the equivalent of one bag of CAN or half a bag of urea.

On some farms, bare paddocks have received up to 46 units in the past week (one bag of urea) and, with the improved air and soil temperatures, grass growth rates of up to 21kg DM/ha have been recorded.

Scanning

Autumn herds are now being scanned and the initial reports from the programme advisers are that conception rates are excellent.

Cows were served in ideal body condition and, where there was an abundance of good grass available, having the cows on a steady diet during the breeding period has also helped with conception rates.

Although not all herds have been scanned yet, the initial indications are that the autumn herds are running at 95% to 97% of females put to the bull being in-calf.

Further to this, conception to first service is seemingly running high at 80+%.

The value of having cows in good condition and on a steady, high-energy diet reinforces the importance of managing grass quality from May to July when spring herds are being bred.

It also shows the importance of getting these animals settled on a grass diet before the onset of breeding, especially first calved heifers and thin cows to improve their body condition.

  • Last week’s good weather has greatly improved ground conditions. Although not all of the farms are suitable for grazing, there has been an increase in fertilizer and slurry activity.
  • Where ground conditions allow, lighter stock have been turned out permanently to grass.
  • On/off grazing is still being used to graze calves on farms with more marginal ground conditions. These animals are still being offered 1kg/head/day of meal when housed at night.
  • Calves over one-month-old have received the first shot of Blackleg vaccine prior to turnout.
  • Scanning of autumn herds has been very positive, with approximately 95% of cows and heifers submitted for breeding in-calf.
  • Feeding cows in the evening and restricting access to feed during the day can reduce the number of cows calving during the night and increase the number of calves born during daytime when there is more time to attend to the animals.