The warmer weather over the past week to ten days was badly needed after what was a dreadfully cold first half to June. Farmers have been on the back foot with grass all year, and a combination of grass failing to peak at the levels it should, combined with swards stemming out due to stress from the cold northeasterly breeze meant that this year it has been harder than ever to correct grasss quality.
The warmer weather over the past week to ten days was badly needed after what was a dreadfully cold first half to June.
Farmers have been on the back foot with grass all year, and a combination of grass failing to peak at the levels it should, combined with swards stemming out due to stress from the cold northeasterly breeze meant that this year it has been harder than ever to correct grasss quality.
While growth improved by about 5kg DM/ha this week, according to PastureBase Ireland figures there is still a good deal of supplementation going in to cows, with 4kg of meal and a kilo of silage on average across dairy farmers who are measuring.
It’s a high level of feeding, but with growth just about exceeding demand, it’s a necessary evil.
Average farm covers on PBI have managed to creep up to 185kg DM/lu, with pre grazing yields of 1,380kg DM/ha.
Looking at this, you would think that most farms should be in a good position going forward. However, 26% of dairy farmers measuring grass recorded a cover of 150kg DM/lu or less last week, with these farmers in trouble.
I would suspect that the majority of these farms are on free draining soils, with soil moisture deficits indicating levels of 47-60mm across much of the southeast and east coasts.
Once soil moisture deficits reach 50mm, growth is impacted quite badly. The coming week’s forecast does not look to be carrying any significant amount of rain, so this problem may be exasperated.
Supplementation at these high levels should be held across any farm at low covers/lu or that are inclined to burn up in summer months.
Grass growth and AFC has improved on a lot of farms and is at a respectable level.However, half of farms are in trouble, with AFC of less than 150kg DM/lu.Supplementation will have to be continued at current levels or increased where growth remains lower, or close to, demand.Soil moisture deficits could impede growth for the week to come.John Joe Collins – Teagasc Ballyhaise, Co Cavan
Improved growth has allowed us to take out some surplus paddocks for silage.
We’ve been working on correcting grass quality on the farm, with 60% of paddocks in good sward condition. We have done a small amount of topping on paddocks that we can’t bale.
Cows are hitting covers of 1,200-1,300kg DM/ha. We’ve been following them with 90kg/ha of 29-0-14 on our grass-only swards, while clover has kicked into gear on our clover paddocks.
The first six weeks of breeding are just about complete, with OK levels of repeats witnessed so far, though the next three weeks will really tell how breeding has gone.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 3.04
Growth Rate (kg/day) 60
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 202
Yield (l/cow) 22.3
Fat% 4.77
Protein% 3.55
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.91
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 2.25
Alan McCormick – Ballina, Co Mayo
Growth has really lifted in the last week due to a number of factors. We needed rain and heat to push on grass and we were lucky to get both. We had been in a deficit for much of June, with silage being fed up until last week.
First cut silage ground coming back in for grazing, as well as three paddocks that were reseeded, has helped lift our cover per cow, which went as low as 136kg/lu.
We had spread 18-6-11+S on the last round after cows, and are back to spreading 22-25 units of protected urea now. First scanning is taking place today after eight weeks breeding, with good results so far.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 3.71
Growth Rate (kg/day) 79
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 188
Yield (l/cow) 21
Fat% 4.51
Protein% 3.79
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.8
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3
John and Sylvia Powell – Birr, Co Offaly
We are back to 12-hour grazing to try and accurately allocate grass with us being tight. We’re reluctant to feed silage as it is in short supply here, and we will likely offload some store cattle earlier to reduce our silage demand.
If we get rain in the next week we should be ok, but if we don’t then we’re in dangerous territory.
We had been pre-mowing or post-mowing paddocks to correct quality, but we stopped this when the rain stopped.
We blanket spread the farm last week just before the rain, with 18-6-12 being spread in the last two rounds.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 4
Growth Rate (kg/day) 45
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 80
Yield (l/cow) 22.5
Fat% 4.43
Protein% 3.74
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.9
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5
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