The combination of decent levels of rainfall and the residual heat in the ground have led to a lot of what were very bare paddocks greening up again, with growth returning to late-May levels.
Meal feeding is still quite heavy on farms, and while it’s recommended to continue supplementation past where growth exceeds demand, this has happened on a lot of farms already – especially in the northwest where the drought had less of an affect.
Cows are entering in to the second half of their lactation in the next few weeks, and with dry matter of grass high and breeding in the latter stages, such high supplementation will have little benefit where sufficient grass is available on farm.
Quality is still an issue on some farms, as grass plants were under moisture and nutrient stress, with some farms even reporting some stem in after grass.
For the most part, this is purely a visual issue as the underlying grass is of good quality.
Where paddocks are particularly stemmy in nature, an opportunity to mow these out and bale/pit them might be feasible where growth allows.
Some spring reseeds that were slow to get going will be coming back in to the rotation in the next week or two, which should take some pressure off the grazing block.
Care should be taken if second cut silage is to be mowed out in the near future, with the restrictive growth in June slowing down the nitrogen usage of the sward.
Where regular volumes (70-80 units N) were applied, N content of the grass may be high, and with current dull conditions there will be little opportunity to wilt this excess nitrogen out of the sward.
Donal Patton – Teagasc Ballyhaise, Co Cavan
We’ve received 80mm of rain in the last two weeks, with ground now softened a bit while still firm. We had been running very tight on grass at 120-130kg DM/cow, and with no real good quality silage we had cows on 6kg meal.
Now that the rain has come, we are dropping that back down to 3kg.
Our stocking rate is still quite high, as 25% of the block was taken out for reseeding.
This will be coming back in to the rotation in the next two to three weeks.
Quality of grass is still an issue on about 20% of the paddocks.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.83
Growth Rate (kg/day) 76
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 153
Yield (l/cow) 23.5
Fat % 4.39
Protein% 3.44
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.9
Concentrates 3
Kevin Brennan – Paulstown, Co Kilkenny
We had been feeding silage up until last Saturday, but we got a massive burst of growth there over a period of four days.
Feeding had been at 5kg meal and 3kg of silage, with the aim now being to pull meal down to 3kg or below.
Paddocks got a little hairy in the middle of the drought, but we were grazing these at low covers and skinning them out, so we have some excellent quality grass coming through now.
The issue we will have now is that a lot of covers are at 800-1,100kgDM/ha, meaning we will likely be back out with the mower in the next fortnight.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.83
Growth Rate (kg/day) 76
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 153
Yield (l/cow) 23.5
Fat % 4.39
Protein% 3.44
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.9
Concentrates 3
Michael Ryan – Cashel, Co Tipperary
Our figures look good, but we pre-mowed 90% of the platform in the drought, meaning that the grass that came back was high quality but low dry matter, with cows flying through it. We have only a few days of that left before moving back on to grass that was grazed in the last round.
After pre mowing, we followed cows with 2,000-2,200 gallons/ac of very watery slurry, emptying all the tanks in the yard. No contamination was seen, and we should see the real value of it in the next round. We are following cows this round with one unit/ac/day of protected urea, with clover paddocks receiving less.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.46
Growth Rate (kg/day) 75
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 177
Yield (l/cow) 24.5
Fat % 4.46
Protein% 3.6
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 2.03
Concentrates 4