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Clover: A lot of farmers are talking about over-sowing clover into established swards this summer. However, I think the optimum time to do this has now passed and farmers would be better off waiting until next April to do it. It’s not that clover won’t get established now, it will, but the opportunities to take off three or four grazings at light covers just won’t be there for the rest of this year.
This week, we carry a research update from the Teagasc Solohead Farm in Tipperary, which has over 17 years of research into clover. The researchers there say there is an antagonistic relationship between high closing covers in winter and clover content and thus nitrogen fixation in the next season. So, to have high N fixation, you need to close paddocks with a low cover in winter, which obviously goes against best management practice in order to have enough grass in spring for early turnout. This is just one aspect of the many complexities and trade-offs involved in managing clover. Policy-makers, take note.
Replacements: Continue to manage heifers and dry cows for fly prevention. Pour-on based fly control is the most common method of prevention, but where the risk is high, some farmers will apply pour-on or Stockholm tar or other topical treatment to the udder area. At this stage, in-calf heifers should be almost 70% of their mature body weight. This is just over 400kg if the mature weight is 580kg. Heifer calves should be almost 30% of mature weight or 170kg now. Of most importance is the calf weight. Calves should be split up based on weight, grazed separately and fed meal accordingly. Those on target weight do not need meal, but those below target will need meal and excellent quality grass.
Watch for signs of hoose in calves and yearling animals. After a lot of rain and lush, moist conditions, there is likely to be more lungworm around this autumn. It’s a parasite that can severely affect animal health. If lungworm is a problem, be very careful when dosing animals as the process of coughing up the dead lungworm can lead to secondary issues and there are even reports of some badly infected animals dying after being treated.
Third cut/graze: Those that have cut or are waiting to cut second-cut silage on the milking platform could decide to close up all or some of that ground for a third cut or graze option. Effectively, this means you treat that area like you would for a third cut but decide in September whether you will cut it or graze it. The decision whether to cut or graze will depend on average farm cover at the time. You should be hitting peak average farm cover at the end of September so having this area in the back pocket will be a big asset to have. If growth rates and average farm cover is good, it can always be cut for silage. Presuming this ground was fully fertilised for first and second cut, it will require around 50 to 60 units/acre of nitrogen and the equivalent of one bag/acre of 0:7:30 or its equivalent in slurry. I would split the nitrogen application in two, applying 25 units now and 25 units in mid-August and cut/graze in mid-September.
SHARING OPTIONS: