A lot of farmers have begun correcting sward quality as rainfall has resulted in growth coming more in line with what is expected for the time of year.

A comment a lot of farmers are making is that visually, swards are looking stemmy and heavy, but when the paddock is actually walked, they are seeing that the underlying grass is very good, with a small amount of stem giving paddocks a poor appearance.

When topping of these paddocks is happening, try to get in to paddocks with the topper as soon as possible after grazing to prevent regrowths being checked.

ADVERTISEMENT

Where autumn reseeding is planned, these paddocks should be sprayed off relatively soon to ensure that seed goes in to the ground in favourable conditions and that the opportunity to apply post-emergence spray and get reseeds grazed without causing damage late on in the autumn.

Farmers

Stephen Frend – Newford Herd, Co Galway

We spread Urea the week prior to the weather breaking which had really boosted our growth, with this week’s figure lower than last week. We had spread 16-18 units of 38+S, depending on clover content.

Quality has been the main issue, and our growth isn’t good enough to mow out paddocks.

Cows have been grazing out swards well, but yearlings are leaving a residual behind and we are not anxious to push them too hard and impact liveweight gain. The heifers were weighed in the last week and averaged 500kg.

Second cut silage is still a few weeks off cutting. It wasn’t cut until 2 June and was very slow to get going again with the lack of moisture.

System Suckler to finishing

Soil Type Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 803

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 51

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 63

Shaun Diver – Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly

We are grazing the last of the heavy covers of grass now with the cows, with excellent quality grass ahead of us after this. The whole farm will have been topped/mowed after these paddocks are topped on Monday.

Twenty acres of grass with a high clover content received 2,300 gallon/acre of watery slurry spread with LESS, with another 45 acres receiving protected urea with added K to replenish off takes throughout the year.

Our second cut ground was a full month between harvesting of first cut and slurry/fertiliser application for second cut due to the dry weather, but it is really bombing on now with the nutrients, heat and moisture.

Our lambs have been wormed recently and were weaned on Wednesday.

System Suckler to finishing

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 803

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 51

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 63

Ger McSweeney – Millstreet, Co Cork

Grass growth has been really good, and I’m seeing an excellent regrowth in grazed off swards compared to a couple of weeks ago where they were very sluggish to come back.

The graze outs have been excellent right through, meaning the quality of grass coming back is excellent. I’m grazing covers of 1,600-1,700kg DM/ha at the moment, but they are a leafy sward and cows are mowing through them.

I think allocating the grass in 12-hour strips has helped maintain the quality.

Two paddocks were mown out last week for bales, with the topper out for the first time 10 days ago to correct three paddocks. These had heavy covers on them as I was using them as an insurance policy for the drought.

System Suckler to finishing

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 665

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 59

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 49