Sunday is 15 September so it’s a good time to check in on our targets. A lot of highly stocked farmers are still behind their average farm cover (AFC) target of 1,100kg by mid-September. Growth on farms this week averaged 58kg/day. With the daylight hours getting shorter each day and the nights getting cooler, we might have seen the last of the high growth rates. Farms with a demand of 60kg or greater are now finished building grass and will be grazing more than they’re growing from now on. So if the AFC of 1,100kg is not met, reducing the demand on these farms is essential. This may mean feeding extra concentrates or high-quality silage bales.

Highly stocked farms will also want to maximize grass growth this month. If you did not get nitrogen out on your farm in the last three weeks, going with 20 to 30 units/acre of nitrogen before Sunday would be advisable.

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High covers

The pre-grazing yield on farms should not be greater than 2,200kg/ha.

Once covers go past this mark, the quality will be poor and utilization is reduced. Grazing covers over 2,200kg will also slow down regrowths. The same can be said for cutting or topping of fields, which should not be done on any farms from now on as it will have a detrimental effect on the amount of grass in the last rotation. Covers that are over 2,000kg will need strip wires to be introduced to ration the grass out and keep the focus on getting a clean-out.

Spraying

In Leinster and east Munster, soil conditions are still pretty good and after Friday the weather conditions are to be dry which may present an opportunity to get some spraying done. We need to treat grass like a crop and know that less weeds means more feed. Timing is very important with spraying and we need to target the growing plant.

  • Grass growth average 58 kg/day.
  • Avoid grazing covers over 2,200 kg DM/ha.
  • Cutting and topping paddocks from now on will affect the amount of grass available to graze in the last rotation.