Significant rain levels have been recorded over the last few days on the THRIVE dairy calf to beef demonstration farm outside Cashel, Co Tipperary. I carried out the weekly grass walk on Tuesday and it was the first time since early spring that I had to wear wellies to do so – such has been the length of the dry conditions.

Farmer John Hally says the farm has had nearly 50mm over the past week, with over 35mm of that falling during a heavy thunderstorm.

The rain has definitely freshened things up with everything looking much greener compared to last week. The grass growth figure is 36kgDM/ha for this week, however I am confident that next weeks figure will be back up between 50 – and 60kgDM/ha as the rainfall takes effect.

Calves

The two oldest batches of calves have been put together and are grazing silage aftergrass. The sward beneath their feet is absolutely perfect grazing for young stock. With calves grazing this top quality grass, and a burst of grass growth expected, the decision has been made to cease meal feeding this group.

The next batch are that bit younger and will continue to be fed a 1kg concentrate/head/day.

Yearling cattle

We were happy with the weighing results from last week for these cattle with bullocks doing 1.22kg/day and heifers averaging 1.02kg/day since turnout.

This ZAG bullock weighed 462kg (1.27kg/day since turnout).

This BB4085 bullock weighed 496kg last week (1.20kg/day from turnout)

This HE4291 bullock weighed 486kg (1.44kg/day since turnout).

This AA4086 bullock weighed 432kg (1.10kg/day sicne turnout).

Prior to this weighing all the bullocks were grazing together in one batch and all the heifers were together in another. John decided to divide these groups in two at this stage now that grass intake is increased. He feels that they are more settled in smaller batches of 30-35 rather than in one big batch.

There are still some covers on farm that have gone to seed.

There are still a couple of grass covers on the farm that have headed out but once we move through these the quality of the regrowths across the farm are excellent.