Grass growth really took off in the last week. Average growth rate on our Grass+ farms was 80kg/day, with some farms recording in excess of 100kg/day. While it is great to see, it does bring challenges – high growth rates must be well managed.
The first step is to walk the farm twice this week. A lot can change in the space of a few days – the right decision on Monday may be the wrong decision on Friday if growth was not as high as predicted or was more than predicted. By walking twice this week, you have the option of skipping over a paddock or going back into a paddock that was skipped. By next week it could be too late, because covers might be too strong.
Too much grass is worse than too little. The quality really deteriorates, which in turn affects milk yield and protein percent as well as subsequent growth because the tough, white base takes a lot longer to recover than a nice green base after grazing. Target lower covers, 1,300kg to 1,500kg/ha, is optimal.
The good week has meant that a lot of silage has been cut down south and on the drier farms further north. With a mixed forecast for the weekend and beyond, there might not be much more silage cut in the next week. Cooler temperatures are also forecast to return.
For those without silage cut, and with a high demand as a result of having ground closed up for silage, I would be a bit more conservative about closing off more area for silage, at least until you know for sure when it can be cut.
Now that ground conditions have improved, don’t forget to take up the 12-hour fence. I think three grazings per paddock are optimal. Any more than this and re-growths begin to get grazed and animal performance drops.
Twelve-hour breaks are too hard on younger animals – they find it difficult to compete with older cows and overall intake drops.
Steven Fitzgerald
Teagasc Curtins Farm
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 4.92
Growth rate (kg/day) 82
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 150
Yield (kg/cow/day) 26.8
Fat % 3.77
Protein % 3.54
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0
We cut silage last Thursday and baled it up on Saturday. Conditions were ideal and we averaged about 10 bales/acre, so it was a combination of quality and quantity. These fields won’t be put back into the rotation until next week, so our demand is still high. We took out two more surplus paddocks on Monday and plan to cut these next week. Cows are milking very well, but fat did take a fall. We scanned the 10 cows (7% of herd) that were not seen bulling after the first three weeks and four got a CIDR, five got prostaglandin and one was given more time.
Michael Doran
Duncormick, Co Wexford
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 5.5
Growth rate (kg/day) 78
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 154
Yield (kg/cow/day) 18
Fat % 4.71
Protein % 3.72
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0
Grass is flying it here at the minute. We cut silage over the weekend so that’s one big job out of the way. Demand will be dropping off as soon as this comes back into the rotation, along with the reseeded ground. This is just as well as there is a dip in my wedge at present, after taking out surplus bales the previous week. Pre-grazing yields are between 1,300kg and 1,400kg/ha. Cows are holding their own in milk. This is a young herd so yield is a bit lower, but fat and proteins are good. No concentrate is being fed.
Kevin Twomey
Ballyhooly, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 4.09
Growth rate (kg/day) 109
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 157
Yield (kg/cow/day) 25.2
Fat % 4.31
Protein % 3.74
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1.5
We cut silage last Monday and picked it up Tuesday and Wednesday. Grass is jumping out of the ground at the minute. We recorded a growth rate of 109kg/day up to last Monday. Pre-grazing yield is around 1,500kg/ha, which is a bit on the high side. I would think quality would suffer above this. We will be going into lower covers as soon as the after-grass comes back into the round. Breeding is progressing well – we submitted over 90%. I’m a bit disappointed about the number of repeats so far, but it is too early to tell as we are only heading into week five. Continuing to feed 1.5kg of meal to cover for tetany.
Donal Patton
Teagasc Ballyhaise
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.72
Growth rate (kg/day) 61
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 181
Yield (kg/cow/day) 24
Fat % 4.47
Protein % 3.59
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1.5
We got a growth rate of 61kg/day this week. The weather has picked up considerably on last week, which allowed us to cut out a few paddocks for silage and reduce our stocking rate from 4.1 last week to 3.72 cows/ha today. We hope to be in a position to close off more paddocks next week if growth remains strong, but with more rain forecast for next Monday, this might hamper our plans. Cows are now back on 36-hour grazings and ground conditions are excellent. The breeding season is progressing well and we are now approaching the third week of mating, so I should have accurate submission rates for next week.