Recent rainfall probably fell just when needed, especially on drier farms, and it has worked well to allow slurry to go back out on to first cut ground.
Growth has sustained, and even increased on many farms, and farmers should be in a good position coming in to mid-June which can often be a pinch point as they wait for some first cut ground to come back in to the rotation.
The forecast for the next week or so seems to be relatively the same, cooler but still warm temperatures and ample rainfall to keep grass ticking along.
This means that there won’t be massive opportunities to mow out any surplus but these will come, so earmark which paddocks are accessible for a mower and which aren’t, making sure that the latter are grazed before they become too heavy.
John Dunne – Portarlington, Co Laois
It’s all hands on deck here as we prepare for our open day on 5 June at 6.30pm at Eircode R32 V127. We will have our new cattle unit, red clover ground, new reseeds as well as scanning results from our synch programme and lots more on display.
We are also doing a practical demo on cows that calved down at 24 months versus those that calved down at three years old.
We harvested a lot of surplus paddocks with the strong grass growth alongside first cut ground. Red clover ground has been cut and slurry spread, but we still have some slurry to go back onto our grass silage ground and plan how much ground is taken for second cut.
We have one or two heavy covers in paddocks that can’t be mown, but after this we will be in swards of 1,500-1,600kg DM/ha.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 613
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 62
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 27
William Treacy – Hackballscross, Co Louth
We harvested first cut silage on 24 May in excellent conditions and have been heading back out with slurry on this ground. We will take the majority of this ground in again for second cut.
We are awash with grass at the minute; this generally happens in the summer when we have broken weather with ample rain.
The one issue is we have some surplus to mow out now to keep the grass ahead of stock right.
I haven’t spread any fertiliser in the last two weeks or so as I felt this growth burst was coming, but I will be spreading protected urea on the silage ground next week and I’ll top up any bare paddocks.
There are still some beef bulls and the last of the spring 2024 heifers in the shed and these are fit for slaughter now.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 1,056
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 114
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 70
Peter Doyle – Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath
We received 25mm of rain over the last week, so we are spreading 2,500 gallons/acre on our red clover ground after first cut having been taken off it. First cut was completed on 25 May for our youngstock, with three surplus paddocks pitted alongside it.
We have another four paddocks earmarked for mowing as they have gone too strong. We are anxious to get these mowed and growing again as we will be tight for grass in three or four weeks. Some dry cow silage will hopefully be harvested as well in the next break in the weather.
Our stitched=in clover has done well with the recent good growth, and the priority is to keep these swards grazed at 1,000kg DM/ha to ensure light gets to the base of the plant. We have some red clover ground to reseed in the near future as well.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 699
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 61
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 62
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