Our farmers have been walking their grazing area for a fortnight to work out where they stand from the point of view of ground conditions and opening farm grass cover. Opening cover on the BETTER farm beef programme is healthy at 702kg DM/ha, though growth remains low at 5kg DM/ha/day. However, there is huge variation around this. There are some farms with exceptionally heavy covers that couldn’t be grazed in the back end due to the inclement weather.

On many farms in the west and north, a significant dry spell is needed before farmers will even think about turning animals out. The good weather that came in the east and south this week bypassed the west, where more snow has fallen.

Thankfully, our BETTER farm participants in the region have all completed fodder budgets and the farm with the lowest supply will last until early April. In the east and south, light stock such as yearling dairy-bred or suckler heifer calves have been turned out with a good degree of success.

Take a morning this weekend to walk your farm. Check the drinkers, bring a fence tester and set it up for grazing, even if it seems like you’ll be waiting a few more weeks. It is good to get a feel for ground conditions and many drystock farmers mightn’t have gone near out-farms for a long period during the winter.

In terms of spreading nutrients, target slurry on bare paddocks and get urea on the heavier covers. Soil temperatures are back on where we would like to be for spreading synthetic nitrogen, but that being said, urea will sit there until conditions improve for growth. The fact that a lot of rain and even snow is falling in places is not as big a concern for those with urea on the ground as it would be where CAN, for example, had been spread. That said, we should avoid spreading directly ahead of significant forecasts of rain or snow.

The immediate response from the urea will be low at current soil temperatures, but the benefit is delayed as opposed to lost. Keep an eye on the forecast – as soon as a good period comes and the soil begins to warm consider spreading. Take into account the workload you might have to contend with later on in the spring.

Harry Lalor

Co Laois

System suckler to steer

Soil type 90% dry, 10% heavy

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 724

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 0

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 11

Spring is slow to get going here. We might not have experienced the same level of snowfall as the north-west of the country but it has been extremely cold. I haven’t spread any fertiliser yet but I did get a nice coat of slurry on bare ground earlier this week. Normally, we spread our own slurry but as ground conditions are so poor I was fed up waiting and decided to get a contractor with an umbilical system in. There was little or no damage done to ground. It’s worth a lot to me to get slurry out prior to calving and lambing, not to mention the greater response I’ll get from the slurry in spring compared to later in the year.

If weather picks up I’ll get bucket reared calves which were weaned last week out to grass. Calving won’t really kick off for another fortnight but in-calf heifers I purchased are calving down at the minute. Lambing starts in a month’s time, so I’m trying to get drainage work carried out now on a 14 acre block of ground.

Shane Gleeson

Co Limerick

System suckler to weanling

Soil type highly variable

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 488

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 3

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 10

I turned 29 Hereford-cross dairy weanlings out to grass on 1 February. Conditions were good underfoot for the first 10 days but I have had to move them off grazing ground again last weekend when a heavy fall of snow arrived. They will be turned out again in a few days if conditions improve. I have 17 cows calved and they will be turned out also once conditions improve. I have spread a half bag of urea/acre on 20 acres of my outfarm. Covers are good on this ground due to early closing and in spite of the recent poor weather, the urea will work when soil temperatures rise. Slurry went out two weeks ago at a rate of 2,500 gals/acre on bare paddocks. I plan to graze these in late-March. The lower half of my farm is extremely wet and it will be some time before I can allow stock in or travel with machinery. My lightest weanlings will graze this land. I dosed all weanlings with endofluke and ivomec injection last weekend to cover all stages of fluke and worms.

Adam Woods

Tullamore farm

System suckler to bull beef

Soil type variable

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 422

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 2

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 3

Calving started on 29 January, with heifers predominantly due in the first two weeks. So far, we have 11 calved with nine live calves on the ground. Two of these losses were out of heifers.

Both presented normally and were allowed to progress to calve but, when handled, the calves were dead. Both have been sent to Athlone regional vet lab for a post-mortem.

Bulls have just started ad-lib feeding this week and are consuming 9kg of ration and have moved on to straw. Heifers have been moved off straw bedding back on to slats to make way for cows. All cows have now been clipped and have received their scour vaccine. Average farm cover is quite low at 422kg/DM/ha. There are some nice covers of grass on paddocks closed up since last October but the reseeded area that was grazed with sheep until Christmas has very little grass.

We are waiting on ground conditions to improve to spread 30 units of urea/acre as soon as possible. Slurry has been spread on 18 acres.

Martin Downes

Co Westmeath

System suckler to bull beef

Soil type mostly heavy

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 594

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 0

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 3

The inclement weather has left ground saturated and as a result no slurry or fertiliser has been applied yet. As soon as ground conditions allow, I hope to get slurry out on low-index paddocks with an umbilical system and dribble bar and any remaining ground will get three-quarters of a bag of urea to get growth kick-started. The last of my beef bulls will be slaughtered this week and they appear to have done very well. This year, I plan to finish a group of my bulls under 16 months and they are currently on a TMR made up of a high a maize ration, beet, silage and straw and I plan to weigh them this week to monitor their growth rates. Calving is just around the corner and in the last few weeks I have been getting the facilities ready and disinfected in preparation for a busy period. Cows are currently being restricted on silage and being supplemented with a pre-calving mineral. I have enough silage to keep me going to mid-April but I hope to get stock out well before this, which will reduce my demand.

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Difficult weather to start off the grass season