Grazing

Ground conditions are anything but simple at the moment after a week of heavy rain. The forecast for the weekend and early part of next week is showing improvement, so those on drier land should be able to start grazing freshly calved cows. The target is to get 30% to 40% of the farm grazed in February. Obviously, this target is delayed to mid to late March for those on heavier soils or in more northern parts where growth is slower.

By grazing one-third of the farm within the first four weeks, you will ensure there is sufficient re-growth back for the second rotation. More often than not, the 30% target is missed because of poor weather or by not giving enough grass. So when conditions are suitable you need to go for it, cut out silage and leave cows out day and night, if only for a few hours at a time. Freshly calved cows have small appetites, eating a total of 10kg/day to 12kg/day of dry matter in the first week or 10 days but increasing by 1kg/day each week thereafter. Higher yielding herds will have higher intakes.

Fertiliser

If conditions improve next week, the next important job will be to get some early nitrogen spread. Fields that got slurry in January or February won’t need to be spread with nitrogen in this round. The product of choice is urea as this is more stable in the soil. Some farmers are using protected urea but this is their choice, there is no obligation on those in a nitrates derogation to use it. Watch soil temperatures before spreading fertiliser, they should be above 6°C. This applies to slurry as well as chemical nitrogen. There is a good return in terms of grass growth when nitrogen is applied to perennial ryegrass swards in January and February.

Calving

Some farms have upwards of 20% to 30% of cows calved. In my view this is too many cows calved too early in the year. Optimum mean calving date for those on dry land is 14 February. Moving earlier than this means a significant proportion of the herd will be fed silage and expensive meals rather than be out grazing grass, which adds costs and workload. The key elements of profitable dairy farming are stocking rate and calving date. Appropriately matching the two will ensure a high number of lactation days at grass will be achieved. Calving cows before the optimum date is a symptom of being too focused on lactation yield per cow, rather than overall farm profit. It signals system drift.

Courses

The Irish Farmers Journal grass courses have kicked off. The first of these sessions was online due to COVID-19 restrictions but the expectation is that the next meetings will be in person, subject to Government guidelines in March. Farmers who attend these courses learn valuable skills around grassland management and see the improvements straight away in terms of better cow performance at lower cost. John Crowe has taken over running these courses. If you are interested in taking part, he can be contacted at 086 0817459 or by emailing jcrowe@farmersjournal.ie.