It’s a blissful time of the year to be a beef farmer from a grass point of view, with first cut silage in for the most part, while the recent spell of good weather allowed surplus to be mown out without leaving farmers tight on grass.
A farmer recently remarked to me that the only way you know you took out enough surplus is that 10 days later you are wondering if you took out too much, which was apt.
Many of us will be cautious in taking surplus out, not wishing to have egg on our face in having to feed out bales after having mown them out, plus the cost associated.
As it stands, much of the correction on paddocks has been done, with some light topping still ongoing in paddocks that might not have been grazed since the burst of growth in late May.
While there is some rain in the forecast this week, the weather is set to improve again towards the weekend, so it may be a good opportunity to top up paddocks with a light application of N (10-11 units). Applying N at this time of the year is not so much for growth, but does work wonders in keeping sward quality right.
Jack Spillane – Tipperary Farm, Co Tipperary
We have most of our calves out, with just 61 left indoors. All calves are weaned indoors and turned out two weeks later. We have calves on covers of 600-700kg DM/ha with ad-lib meal for the first week, reducing to 2kg a day and gradually reducing to 1kg a day.
We have a lot of surplus paddocks that are above 2,500kg DM/ha that we have been delayed in cutting.
When these are mown out, we will be on the tighter side for grass, while we are also hoping to get the contractor in the yard soon to get half a bag protected urea/acre out as well on ground to push on growth.
Yearling cattle were weighed last week, with bullocks averaging 426kg and heifers averaging 379kg, which we are happy with considering the delayed turn out.
System Dairy calf to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 902
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 60
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 39
Niall O’Meara – Killimor, Co Galway
I missed my opportunity in taking out 7.5 acres of silage believing the weather was going to come wet this week, but it is not overly heavy and we will mow it out again soon.
So far, I have two thirds of my silage requirements in the yard. I will be spreading 10 units/acre of protected urea on some clover paddocks.
Paddocks that were stitched with clover this year were stitched late, and while they germinated it was a challenge getting these grazed at the right covers owing to the burst of growth a few weeks ago.
I’ll look to keep these grazed at low cover for the next few rounds to encourage them on. Bulls were weighed last week an averaged 393kg at 283 days old, and have gained 1.59kg a day since mid-April on 1.5kg/head/day of concentrates.
System Suckler to weanling
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 793
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 44
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 43
Ken Gill – Clonbollogue, Co Offaly
Growth really took off here in the last three weeks, with grass having been tight before that. I have three paddocks of surplus mown out and hoping to bale up this evening; they were slightly stemmy in nature with one being an older sward and two more recent reseeds. After eating in to our buffer this spring, I’m hoping to build up reserves in this way.
Stock are getting an extra day or so out of paddocks which is allowing me to take paddocks out of the rotation and put in to silage ground I’d be hoping to get more paddocks out and baled in the next few weeks.
The red clover silage is looking well and is probably two weeks away from mowing for second cut. The combi crop has had great growing conditions since setting, though the barley is looking a little yellow but I am not overly concerned.
System Organic suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 748
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 43
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 27
SHARING OPTIONS