Across the seven days of last week, the accumulation of rain that fell is between two times and four times the national average for that week of the year.

This has caused problems on some farms with heavier soil types. Ground is now saturated and in places, cows are starting to poach paddocks.

Thankfully, drier weather is expected across the weekend and into next week with temperatures also expected to lift. Ground should dry out quickly and normal order can resume.

The rain over the last two weeks was a blessing for those drier farms who have been scarred by the droughts of previous years.

Growth on these farms has continued to hit the high 80’s and 90’s, the first time in several years, that level of growth has been sustained for three to four weeks in a row.

Growth

With good weather expected, high growth is likely to continue for at least another week. Farms need to take surpluses out quickly to stay on top of grass quality and get returning grass growing.

High growths won’t last forever and therefore it’s important to keep demand in check. Where paddocks have covers of over 1,600kg DM/ha and quality is suffering, they should be taken out for bales ASAP.

Don’t delay until the paddock has built up a strong cover, as doing so will shorten the rest of the rotation and put the farm under pressure should growth rates fall.

By mowing the paddock regardless of weather, grass underneath will be starting to recover and grow again. The coming week is expected to be dry so baling that grass won’t be an issue.

In terms of fertiliser, paddocks with good clover contents should be getting half-rate nitrogen or parlour washings only. Non-clover paddocks should be getting between 0.8 and 1 unit/day of nitrogen.

Therefore, if the farm is on a 21-day round, spreading between 16 and 21 units/acre is enough. On paddocks where heavier covers of bales are made, parlour washings or some compound fertiliser should be going out.

Reseeds sown in early May will need post-emergence spray this week. Aim to graze these paddocks at covers no greater than 1,000kg DM/ha.

Eoin McCormack, Clonakilty – Co Cork

Growth is good again this week and managing grass quality is the biggest challenge for us at the moment. We have taken out 78 surplus bales over the last week and this should be a help. The cows went into a cover of 1,800kg DM/ha on Tuesday as cover per cow was dropping and we couldn’t afford to take another paddock out. They are back into 1,300’s now for the next week. It’s week seven of breeding and all of the cows were submitted in six weeks including late calvers. We made first-cut silage two weeks ago and this has gotten slurry plus 60 units of protected urea. The milking platform is getting just eight units of N each round.

Stocking rate (LU/ha) 3.37

Growth (kg/ha) 80

Average farm cover (kg/cow) 164

Yield (l/cow) 20.66

Fat (%) 4.42

Protein (%) 3.68

Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.72

Concentrates (kg/cow) 1

Leonard Gavin, Tullamore – Co Offaly

Growth is well back this week but there are still plenty of surpluses to be taken out as soon as the weather allows. We have close to 20% of the platform marked for bales but the rain has really delayed this. We did make half our first cut on 23 May and we’ll take the other half this weekend along with the surplus bales. The way spring was, we didn’t get to graze the silage ground until late and as a result it’s being cut late. Breeding is going very well on the farm and repeats are very quiet. It’s almost too quiet so we’re planning to do a bit of scanning just to see where we’re at. In terms of fertiliser, we’re following the cows with 20 units/acre of nitrogen.

Stocking rate (LU/ha) 3.17

Growth (kg/ha) 56

Average farm cover (kg/cow) 182

Yield (l/cow) 22.6

Fat (%) 5.14

Protein (%) 3.78

Milk solids (kg/cow) 2.07

Concentrates (kg/cow) 3

Oisin Gill, Hollymount – Co Mayo

Growth is well back this week. We had a lot of rain the last two weeks and the farm has gotten cold as a result. We’re getting a little bit tight for grass, so we’ve upped the meal until growth gets a lift again. Quality is hard to manage and we’ve had to take out a couple of paddocks as bales to improve things. The regrowths are slow on these.

We’re following cows with one unit a day of nitrogen. We plan to cut back nitrogen on clover paddocks, but there just isn’t enough clover in them yet to drop it. We made first-cut silage on 20 May. It was a fairly light crop, so we’ve slurry and fertiliser out now to take a good second-cut.

Stocking rate (LU/ha) 3.3

Growth (kg/ha 68

Average farm cover (kg/cow) 165

Yield (l/cow) 24.5

Fat (%) 4.63

Protein (%) 3.81

Milk solids (kg/cow 2.12

Concentrates (kg/cow) 6