Grazing has been hampered slightly by heavy rainfall in some parts of the country. Those most affected seem to be in the drier counties, but some of the north and north west also received some heavy showers over last weekend.

As a whole, the outlook for the remainder of the month doesn’t appear to bad, with some colder but drier weather forecast.

What farmers should be cautious of now though is that growth has dropped rapidly; drystock averages for last week were in the mid 20s, which is pretty much on par with demand for well stocked farms.

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If farm cover is at close to the desired closing cover e.g. 700kg DM/ha, then we need to be cautious that we do not eat in to farm cover too much and that demand is matched with growth.

Ger McSweeney – Millstreet, Co Cork

The focus is now on preparation for housing as we count down the days remaining at grass. Nearly all the home block is closed up now for early grazing in spring, and despite some good regrowth on these I will resist temptation to graze them.

We have some covers around the 2,000kg DM/ha on the out block, but these are manageable.

Heifers were weaned this week, with these left indoors while their dams went out to reduce the risk of mastitis. I’m hoping to get these calves out again now and maybe house some of the cows to take pressure off grass.

Some finished heifers were killed out of the shed last week, so these will free up some space should we have to house soon.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 770

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 26

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 33

Jack Spillane – Tipperary Calf Farm, Co Tipperary

We still have 20 store cattle at grass as we are waiting on more cattle to be drafted for slaughter to free up pen space. These haven’t been getting any concentrates at grass up until recently.

We had been achieving consistent gains of 1kg liveweight gain per day at grass alone. Finishing cattle indoors are on 5kg of a 12% protein high energy beef nut and high quality first cut pit silage, with 71 cattle sold so far.

All our weanlings remain at grass, with 1.5kg of concentrates being fed to them. We have 58 weanlings grazing on our Westerwolds that were sown after the spring barley.

Calves should get over three weeks’ grazing on this block, and we will likely regraze these again.

System Dairy calf to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 1,045

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 28

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 21

William Treacy – Hackballscross, Co Louth

Grass is still growing and we have a lot of stock at grass. I intend to get some lime out on recently grazed paddocks within the next 10 days.

Autumn calving cows remain at grass, with the stock bull to be turned out with these next week. Late-born spring calves are still with their dams at grass, while all the weaned spring calves are also grazing away, with their dams indoors.

Cattle are being clipped and treated with an injectable parasitic for adult fluke, worms and lice at housing.

Thankfully, even though the weather is mild, we have had no incidences of pneumonia. Dairy beef weanling bulls continue to graze some reseeds and are thriving well on them, with 2kg/head/day concentrates also fed.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 845

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 40

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 38