Although it’s no hay weather or Indian summer, the last few days have been a welcome reprieve for farmers that were struggling with ground conditions.

For farmers that temporarily housed stock, I’d encourage you to get back out walking fields; it’s surprising how quickly they’ve dried up in the last few days.

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For most farmers, silage ground is now back in the mix. Any slurry or farmyard manure remaining in the yard should go out on to this ground, firstly to get P and K back in to where it has been off taken, but also to get tanks and dung stores emptied.

Farmers should be mindful that the closed period for slurry starts on 1 October this year. If applying slurry, the recommendation would be to use LESS technology to reduce loss of nitrogen.

Unless farm cover is becoming extremely heavy or you are very lowly stocked, I would be slow to hitch on the mower or topper again.

While growth has been strong, topping paddocks will knock back paddocks and push out the recovery by 3-5 days at this point of the year.

If you are in a position where more silage is needed in third cut or as a surplus paddock, increase the application of fertiliser to increase growth further to fill the gap that taking a paddock out of the rotation might cause.

Farmers

William Treacy – Dundalk, Co Louth

We mowed the second cut last Tuesday, tedded Wednesday and pitted it Thursday, with the grass harvested dry and no effluent coming off the pit. The ground itself was a little sticky, but with the crop starting to rot I was anxious to get it pitted.

I’ve spread 1 bag/acre of CAN + S on the harvested ground. There’s approximately 100,000 gallons of slurry in the yard, so this plus any remaining farmyard manure will go out on the silage ground to replace P and K.

There is one field of third cut planned on an outfarm if the weather allows. Last year the weather was too bad so I housed the cattle and zero grazed it in to them. Grazing conditions are excellent at the minute.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 517

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 71

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 41

Peter Doyle – Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath

We are reseeding 8% of the block with a white clover and perennial ryegrass mix. The ground was sprayed off and received 2 tonnes lime/acre, and will be power harrowed twice before being sown. Abergain, Aberchoice and Buddy are being sown in to the sward.

We are building cover again. We were running 12-13 days ahead, with this now increased to 18 days. The grass-only swards received 23 units/acre of protected urea at the start of the month, while clover swards received 13 units/acre. There is one more round to be spread before the closing date.

Bull calves are being castrated this week well in advance of weaning to reduce the stress on them.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 835

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 65

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 43

Ger McSweeney – Millstreet, Co Cork

We’re making the last of the second cut silage here at the minute. It was cut Monday evening and has been tedded out several times in an effort to lower the dry matter.

I had planned on cutting this a number of weeks ago, and the delay in getting it back in for grazing has affected the rotation.

I had the herd test last week, and when some of the heavy heifers were housed, I decided to keep them indoors for finishing. They are now on 4kg of meal and appear to be doing well. I hope to finish these inside a month. The energy levels in grass are low, and they were starting to mark ground. Cull cows have been weaned and will now be fed for finishing as well.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 693

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 43

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 33