Average grass growth this week is down to 35kg/day. Once again there is a range of grass growth, with some farms growing double this and more growing half. While the east and south are being hit by drought the hardest, farms in the midlands and west are under pressure now too. Taking a step back for a moment, it appears that farms with low organic matter levels and soil fertility are the first to be hit. It stands to reason that when the stress comes on, these fields buckle first.
So what can we do? Not a lot is the short answer. I am still confident that when the weather does change grass growth will increase to over 100kg/day again, but the question is when.
If it is in late summer or autumn the burst in growth will be short-lived as daylight hours will be shorter. But if enough rain comes in July we should expect a good August, which will replenish silage stocks and build up grass covers for the autumn, negating the need to feed too much supplement then.
So hopefully what is being fed now will be offset by less feed in autumn. Soil moisture deficits are running at about 80mm in many places. The normal soil moisture deficit is around 30-40mm, so basically we need about 40mm of rain with very little evaporation to get us back to normal. Irrigating fields or spreading fertiliser on dry land is a pointless exercise. If you were going to irrigate you should have started six weeks ago and covered the whole farm nearly every day. Feeding supplement is a cheaper option than spreading water.
Many grass fields, including silage fields, with higher covers are going backwards. I think it is better to graze or cut these before they disappear altogether. If they can be fed directly to stock in lieu of silage, that’s better again.
Teagasc Curtins, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.91
Growth rate (kg/day) 22
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 98
Yield (l/cow/day) 20.46
Fat % 4.39
Protein % 3.57
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.68
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 6
We have included silage since last Thursday and will hold rotation at 1/25 per day from here on, with a diet of 6kg grass, 6kg concentrate and 6kg bale silage. This will effectively mean feeding silage by day and grass in the evenings. We have grown 7.1 t DM/ha to date in 2018, which is 500kg behind last year, although the gap will grow quickly now for July. We have continued to spread fertiliser at a half rate post-grazing and will continue to do this for the next week.
Teagasc Ballyhaise, Co Cavan
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.86
Growth rate (kg/day) 62
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 215
Yield (l/cow/day) 21.9
Fat % 4.18
Protein % 3.54
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.68
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5
Grass growth was a lot better than I thought it would be. We had been feeding 5kg of meal all week, so that and the fact that growth was good meant that we got an increase in farm cover. Cows are grazing covers of 1,100kg and the farm is still green and growing, especially the lower, wetter parts. We decided to spread 15 units/acre of nitrogen last week because the farm is still green. We are still feeding meal this week. We’ll look at it again next week, but for the moment I’m happy enough.
Lixnaw, Co Kerry
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.86
Growth rate (kg/day) 24
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 141
Yield (l/cow/day) 21.86
Fat % 4.30
Protein % 3.52
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.76
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 7
I started minding grass about 10 days ago. I reduced the stocking rate by bringing in some silage ground and I delayed spraying off 12 acres for reseeding. I have the heifers eating silage in feeders. I’m feeding 6kg of meal in the parlour and started feeding palm kernel yesterday. I have it in a big concrete water trough in the field and I move it around after the cows. I’m feeding it now so that the cows will be used to it when I’m grazing lighter covers next week. I’m back using strip wires to hold rotation length at 30 days.
Shinagh Greenfield, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 4.02
Growth rate (kg/day) 40
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 136
Yield (l/cow/day) 18.9
Fat % 4.13
Protein % 3.73
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.53
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 6
We’re under big pressure for grass. We’ve had to go back in to graze ground that was destined for second-cut silage. It has a cover of about 1,200kg, but when it’s gone we’ll have to find an alternative because there’s nothing coming in after the cows. All our good bales are used up, so we will feed palm kernel and probably some pit silage later on. There’s a load of PKE coming today and we’ll start feeding that to get the cows used to it. The fear now is that with all the meal going in cows could get sick, but they are happy so far and breeding is going well.
