The silage season is often crammed into a very short period in Ireland due to weather windows and availability of contractors.

The challenge for farmers arises in the autumn and early winter when grass is plentiful but conditions are less favourable. Pressure also comes on from a slurry storage point of view as frequently grass covers are too heavy to allow slurry spreading on this land. Nobody is more aware of this than Tony O’Mahony in west Cork.

A large part of his workload is silage but, due to demand, he has diversified into grass harvesting on contract in a different way.

Three years ago, Tony purchased his first zero-grazing machine.

As local dairy herds got bigger, he could see more land was required to grow the grass to feed these cows which was not necessarily available around the yards of these herds. Making pit or baled silage was not an issue as this could be managed with his extensive fleet of equipment.

This is our second year zero-grazing and we have seen the milk solids maintained for longer into the autumn as a result

The issue came about with third-cut late autumn grass that could not be grazed due to distance from the milking platform or deteriorating ground conditions. It’s an issue in many parts of Ireland where herds are getting bigger and more land is needed to feed them.

Tony’s son Micheal said: “The benefits of feeding cows grass as opposed to silage at this time of the year are multiple.

The grass diet is maintained so if the weather improves the cows can continue grazing as normal, milk solids are kept constant, there is no need to open a silage pit and late autumn grass can be utilised without it being wasted due to poaching.”

The day the Irish Farmers Journal travelled to meet Micheal was exceptionally wet. We had arranged to see the machine working but didn’t hold any hope due to the sheer volume of rain that had fallen overnight and that morning. Nonetheless, we travelled to the field where there was a heavy cover of approximately 2,000kg DM/ha.

It was obvious from looking at the sward that if cows were left into this in the conditions on the day, most of it would be wasted and the field would be badly damaged.

Micheal is using a ZG80 Zero Grazer. It has a 40m3 capacity with a 2.10m twin-drum mower on the front. A New Holland T7.210 was used on the day we called and was more than able for the task. Despite the weather, the machine was able to travel without causing too much damage. Shod on four 620/40 R22.5mm flotation tyres, the weight was spread over a large footprint to minimise soil damage.

Once the machine was widened out for work, the mower was engaged and work commenced. It wasn’t long until we had a full load of grass due to the heavy crop.

Micheal has added a few extras to the machine.

At the front, a ball and spoon hitch is fitted, which has a number of benefits – an extra 1t can be carried on the drawbar, and there is far less movement and wear compared with a standard hook and eye. A camera on the rear makes filling easier as the operator can see exactly when to move the floor chain rearwards. It cannot be moved forwards.

It also helps when reversing, when pulling in for traffic and most importantly of all to see when the machine is full. Extra red LED lights are also added to the rear to alert drivers in poor visibility.

When asked if there was anything he would change about the machine, Micheal said: “All our tractors have the capability to do 50km/h and the eight-stud axles on this machine are rated to 30km/h. If we were to change the machine we would have to specify it with higher-speed axles with air-over-hydraulic brakes so we can maximise the tractor’s speed capability getting from farm to farm.

"This is especially important as there is a considerable distance between some of our customers. Reliability-wise, it would want to be as strong as it is to handle the work but otherwise we are happy with the machine.”

Micheal charges on a hourly basis but this can vary depending on distance from the yard and how heavy the crop is.

The freshly cut grass was delivered to dairy farmer Barry O’Mahony, who emphasised the benefit of giving the cows grass.

“This is our second year zero-grazing and we have seen the milk solids maintained for longer into the autumn as a result. The cows are milking really well and we are using grass on an outside farm that could otherwise be left unused with the weather we are having.”

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