Grass

Grass growth rates continue to be a disappointment on most farms, particularly in Munster and Leinster. The bad news is that predicted growth rates are not all that good either.

After a lot of rain in most places, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the sluggish growth but colder, harsher weather of the last week certainly isn’t helping. Grass quality is also poor on most farms.

All anyone can do is deal with the situation in front of them. If extra feed is required then so be it. Many are still supplementing with extra meal and silage in order to maintain a rotation length of 20 to 25 days.

While frustrating, there will be a bounce in grass growth at some stage. Be judicious with fertiliser as most fields have turned very green since the rain, indicating that a lack of nitrogen is not the main reason for the low growth rates.

Youngstock

At this stage, a typical Holstein Friesian calf should be weighing about 155kg, or 27% of their mature liveweight. For a Jersey crossbred heifer, the target weight is less, at around 140kg liveweight.

Prioritising after-grass to calves will help to drive on daily liveweight gain, but be careful about feeding grass that’s too lush as this can cause summer scour syndrome. If grass quality is good, there is no requirement to feed meal to calves that are on target weight.

However, lighter calves should be fed meal and given access to the best grass in order for them to catch up. Putting them into a separate group will be a help by itself as it reduces the competition for grass and meal and usually improves liveweight gain.

Dosing for worms should be based on faecal egg counts. Samples can be taken by the vet and analysed as part of an Animal Health Ireland programme, which has already been paid for by farmers through CAP funding.

The key thing when dosing is to make sure you use the correct dose rate. Underdosing is worse than overdosing, as the worms that aren’t killed can develop resistance to the drug and be harder to kill the next time.

Reseeds

The delay in getting clover safe sprays onto the market has caused some big issues in terms of weed control in spring reseeds. Many dock seedlings are now gone past the ideal stage for spraying, meaning they may require higher application rates.

Another issue is that some of the clover will have been smothered out by higher than desired grass covers. The priority should be to spray for docks as soon as possible and then graze as soon as possible.

Grazing at light covers will allow the grass to tiller and bring light to the base of the sward, which will help the clover seedlings. Establishing clover through a reseed is generally much easier than over-sowing, but not if opportunity for early grazing is missed.

We’re getting close to the end of reseeding window for 2022. If a field is sprayed today and grazed or cut in seven days’ time it will be at least two weeks before it will be sown. It will be out of production for all of August and September and will have to be sprayed and grazed in October.