An improvement in the weather towards the end of last week saw many farmers return to the fields with milking cows, if even for a few hours at a time.
More rain over the weekend and on Monday has made land sticky again. The weather forecast is predicting a continuation of this weather, with scattered showers for most of the rest of the week.
This spring will go down as being a very challenging one from a grazing perspective. A lot of land is very wet and farmers have no choice but to house their herds in order to avoid doing damage.
For me, if the cow leaves a hoof print in the soil that’s deeper than one inch, it’s too wet for grazing
Tips for farmers trying to manage grazing this March
Some level of damage is to be expected and accepted in order to get grass into cows. The question is, how much damage is acceptable? For me, if the cow leaves a hoof print in the soil that’s deeper than one inch, it’s too wet for grazing. Surface damage might look bad, but it’s not. Cows must go out grazing with an appetite. Lock them away from silage for at least five hours before turn-out. Ideally, when cows are out at grass by day they should also be out by night, presuming there’s enough grass available. In by day and out by night makes it very difficult to graze aggressively and achieve target residuals. Cows can still be on/off grazed and not get much or any silage in the shed. If behind on area to be grazed, continue to graze lower covers on drier fields. If on target for area to be grazed (40% to 50% grazed) then go into higher covers and get these removed. It’s harder to graze higher covers, so if the weather is bad, continue to graze lower covers. Allocate grass according to what the herd will eat. Keep offering more feed up to the point that residuals increase. Many people are observing that cows are eating more than normal. Curtins, the Teagasc farm in Cork, is allocating 14kg of grass and 3kg of meal. This has implications for the grass budget. Farmers who have no nitrogen spread to date need to get this out as soon as possible. I would be going with 30 to 40 units/acre of nitrogen now. Even farmers who have already spread nitrogen in late January or early February will need to be going with nitrogen again. The compound fertiliser 18:6:12 is said to be a good fertiliser to use where fields were somewhat damaged from grazing. The forecast needs to be good if spreading this type of fertiliser, as the nitrogen is in the form of CAN which is mobile in the soil. Read more
Soggy fields in west Clare
Fonterra remains upbeat on 2020 milk price
An improvement in the weather towards the end of last week saw many farmers return to the fields with milking cows, if even for a few hours at a time.
More rain over the weekend and on Monday has made land sticky again. The weather forecast is predicting a continuation of this weather, with scattered showers for most of the rest of the week.
This spring will go down as being a very challenging one from a grazing perspective. A lot of land is very wet and farmers have no choice but to house their herds in order to avoid doing damage.
For me, if the cow leaves a hoof print in the soil that’s deeper than one inch, it’s too wet for grazing
Tips for farmers trying to manage grazing this March
Some level of damage is to be expected and accepted in order to get grass into cows. The question is, how much damage is acceptable? For me, if the cow leaves a hoof print in the soil that’s deeper than one inch, it’s too wet for grazing. Surface damage might look bad, but it’s not. Cows must go out grazing with an appetite. Lock them away from silage for at least five hours before turn-out. Ideally, when cows are out at grass by day they should also be out by night, presuming there’s enough grass available. In by day and out by night makes it very difficult to graze aggressively and achieve target residuals. Cows can still be on/off grazed and not get much or any silage in the shed. If behind on area to be grazed, continue to graze lower covers on drier fields. If on target for area to be grazed (40% to 50% grazed) then go into higher covers and get these removed. It’s harder to graze higher covers, so if the weather is bad, continue to graze lower covers. Allocate grass according to what the herd will eat. Keep offering more feed up to the point that residuals increase. Many people are observing that cows are eating more than normal. Curtins, the Teagasc farm in Cork, is allocating 14kg of grass and 3kg of meal. This has implications for the grass budget. Farmers who have no nitrogen spread to date need to get this out as soon as possible. I would be going with 30 to 40 units/acre of nitrogen now. Even farmers who have already spread nitrogen in late January or early February will need to be going with nitrogen again. The compound fertiliser 18:6:12 is said to be a good fertiliser to use where fields were somewhat damaged from grazing. The forecast needs to be good if spreading this type of fertiliser, as the nitrogen is in the form of CAN which is mobile in the soil. Read more
Soggy fields in west Clare
Fonterra remains upbeat on 2020 milk price
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