Rain has hit nearly every part of Ireland now at this stage, and while there are still four or so counties with grass growth recorded at below 30kg DM/ha, farms are slowly starting to return to a more normal management system.
Building grass cover up to 1,000kg DM/ha will be unachievable for many, which will mean earlier housing for at least some stock types if we want to keep youngstock at grass, unless we see a month of exceptional growth in September.
It’s unlikely this will happen, as the old adage grass grows grass applies; lower covers mean that grass growth won’t be as high as if we had ample grass to hand.
For this reason, you need to plan ahead and best assess as to how you will manage grass, be that supplementing cattle at grass, earlier housing of cows, cull cows or finishing stock or earlier weaning of calves to preserve grass covers.
Peter Doyle – Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath
Our grass-only sward is growing 30kg Dm/ha while the grass-clover swards are growing 36kg DM/ha.
Grass-only swards received 20 units/N acre, with this reduced to 15 units for the clover swards. We were confident in spreading N and getting good utilisation once growth hit over 30kg DM/ha.
Some suckler cows are still being supplemented with silage in an effort to try and build grass cover to 750kg Dm/ha by mid-September.
Normally we would look to get close to 1,000kg DM/ha but this will not materialise this year.
We will also look to wean calves towards the end of the month to conserve grass for autumn grazing. Our red clover silage is yet to receive its third cut, as it had grown poorly over the dry spell. We aim to mow this in about two weeks’ time.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 594
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 33
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 20
Ger McSweeney – Millstreet, Co Cork
Growth has gone well in the last week. The heavier soil had begun to stall just before we got rain, and this has powered on since. The out farm, which is drier in nature, is starting to come green now. Growth has gone up 10kg DM/ha week on week over the last fortnight.
I spread 22 units N/acre over the last few days. We would be hopeful that this amount plus mineralisation should be enough. Anything now spread will not be spread again this year.
The drier out farm will be spread now that growth is taking off there, with the hope being to continue grazing this ground late in to the autumn. Heifers for finishing were housed two weeks ago, with a 70-day finishing period envisaged to have these gone before cows and weanlings come in. They are on 6kg concentrates/day plus silage.
System Suckler to weanling/ beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 672
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 42
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 33
William Treacy – Hackballscross, Co Louth
We are more or less back on track with grass, though cover is still a little light in paddocks pre grazing. We removed all silage at grass, with cows being strip grazed to maximise utilisation.
We have some cull cows that were weaned plus feeding bulls in the shed receiving silage and concentrates.
The whole farm has been topped up in the last two weeks with 25 units N/acre. There is some slurry yet to go out, with this being primarily targeted at ground that has had two cuts of silage come off it.
With the slurry being from feeding bulls, it should be high in nutrients so we will dilute this down and spread accordingly. We went for a light application of 18-6-12 (half bag/acre) on 13 acres of stronger grass to top it up, with this earmarked for mowing in about two weeks’ time.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 776
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 45
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 42
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