On the back of another week of high temperatures and no rainfall, farms in parts of the south and east of the country are burning up.

Growth has dropped below 20kg/day on some paddocks that were recently grazed, and it’s only those paddocks ahead of cows that appear to be still growing between 40kg/day.

On top of this, windspeed has also been up over the past week, and this is accelerating the fall in growth rates as well as causing heavier covers to melt away.

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Despite all of the above, farmers seem to be maintaining a balanced approach. There’s less panic than there was in previous years.

There’s nothing that can be done to prevent the farm from getting dry, so it’s essentially a matter of panicking slowly over the coming weeks.

Looking at the data from PastureBase, there are still plenty of farms with higher average farm covers of over 700kg DM/ha and cover per cow over 200kg. These farms have plenty of grass and should continue to work through it as normal to prevent it withering away.

Rotation length can be extended to 25 days and supplement levels can be upped slightly to fill the gaps, but aside from that there’s little else to do.

Farms with much lower farm covers of less than 500kg DM/ha or under 140kg/cow are already under pressure, and are probably heading towards heavy feeding levels.

The reality is there could be up to another three weeks or a month of this weather, and regardless of how much rotation length is extended the farm is going to run short of grass.

Many of these farms are taking the decision to keep grazing what’s left and go in with heavy feeding then.

On this week’s Inside Dairy Podcast, we look at the options around what feed to use and compare the costs of each.

Fertiliser

Spreading fertiliser where SMD’s are high and growth is low is of little benefit as response rate is very low.

Paddocks reseeded in the past two years will respond, but getting fertiliser to wash in is the issue. Parlour washings could be a better option.

Where growth is still above 40kg/day and SMD are below 40mm, response rates will be OK. Spread ahead of cows on these farms.

Swardwatch

  • Growth is down, with lack of rain, higher wind speeds and high temperatures the main factors.
  • On heavier soils or where farm cover is still high, graze as normal.
  • Extend rotation to 25 days and fill the gaps with supplement feed where growth rates are falling.
  • With no rain and lower levels of dew, spreading nitrogen on farms that are already very dry is of no benefit now.

    • Farmers

    Jack Sweeney – Wallstown, Co Cork

    Growth is well back and farm cover is dropping quickly. There are three paddocks left with a pre-grazing cover of 1,300kg DM/ha. We’re going into those paddocks now and they’ll give us four days before we have to feed silage.

    We’re currently feeding 4kg of meal, 4kg of palm kernel and 10kg of grass, and by next week we’ll go on a 25-day round and whatever grass is available will be allocated with silage making up the rest of the diet.

    There’s no point holding those heavier covers any long as they’re starting to wither away. We’ve stopped spreading fertiliser, with no nitrogen out in two weeks. Ground reseeded this year is still green, so that’s getting parlour washings.

    Stocking rate (LU/ha) 2.82

    Growth (kg/ha) 15

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 488

    Yield (l/cow) 19.5

    Fat (%) 4.34

    Protein (%) 3.8

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.64

    Concentrates (kg/cow) 4

    David Fogarty – Cantwellscourt, Co Kilkenny

    The farm is very dry and the strong breeze over the last week hasn’t helped. Any paddocks grazed in the last ten days are struggling, but there’s still some growth in the paddocks ahead of cows.

    We have a few heavier covers left and we’re going to be going into them over the next few days before we go in with too much supplement. We’re already feeding about 4kg of palm kernel, 2.5kg of meal and 12kg of grass, but we’ve found in the past if you go in too early with heavy feeding levels, the cows just waste the grass that’s there.

    Stocking rate is high but we’ve second cut ground to come in. The covers are just very low on this ground yet.

    Stocking rate (LU/ha) 3.05

    Growth (kg/ha) 25

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 310

    Yield (l/cow) 18.7

    Fat (%) 5.3

    Protein (%) 3.85

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.76

    Concentrates (kg/cow) 2.5

    Chris Tuffy – Doonally, Co Sligo

    The farm is still growing well but we are starting to get a little bit drier up here. We’ve gone in with 4.5kg of meal to hold cover where it is. If rain came then we’d make bales and bring our cover per cow back down to 180kg, but for now we don’t want to take the chance on cutting.

    Grass quality is OK, about 60% of the farm is good, with the rest of the farm mixed. Production has dropped back a bit in the last week but they’re going into nice covers for the next week so they should hold where they are.

    We were following cows with one bag/acre of 27-2.5-5 up to now but we might look at holding off with this until we get rain again.

    Stocking rate (LU/ha) 2.31

    Growth (kg/ha) 58

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 556

    Yield (l/cow) 22

    Fat (%) 4.64

    Protein (%) 3.76

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.9

    Concentrates (kg/cow) 4.5