About half of the country is suffering from a soil moisture deficit. All of the area below an imaginary line from Louth to Galway and down to west Cork is showing a deficit of 50-70mm.
Of course there are areas within this that are suffering more and other areas that are suffering less, due to having got sufficient rain in those thunderstorms almost two weeks ago.
Other parts of the country are also doing fine. In fact, the dry spell is great outside of this area, with good grass growth and great utilisation.
For these farmers, the focus should be on building up covers for the autumn and keeping inputs as low as possible.
It’s a different story for those affected by poor grass growth. Many are already feeding high levels of meal and silage. With no rain in the forecast, it looks like this will continue for another few weeks.
This is at a time when farms should be building grass. The longer the dry spell goes on for, the smaller the bounce in growth will be.
It’s hard to know what is the right thing to do, but one thing is for sure and that is; if feeding a lot of supplement then you must be on a long rotation length and you must make sure that cows are grazing down well.
This becomes more difficult when supplement is fed, because it’s easier for cows to get their intake at the feed barrier than work hard for grass out in the field.
There might be bawling, but cows will have to get on with the job of cleaning out paddocks well.
Separately, some farmers are asking about reseeding, given how good the weather is. It is late in the season for it and while grass will germinate OK, it could be difficult to get it sprayed and grazed before land gets too wet in October or November.
This will mean less tillering and a more open sward next season, with a higher likelihood of weeds. If hoping to get clover or multispecies established then it’s far too late now – better to wait until next year.
Average grass growth across the country is 36kg per day, but within this there is big variation, with some farms outside of soil moisture deficits growing 70kg/day while some dry farms are growing less than 20kg/day.On farms growing less than 30kg per day, hold off on spreading the final round of nitrogen until moisture is present. There are still two weeks left in the open season for fertiliser. While conditions are ideal for reseeding, it is late in the season and the opportunities for spraying and grazing this year are limited.If short of grass, consider selling culls or drying off low yielding cows as a means of reducing demand for feed. Eoin McGrath – Teagasc Curtins, Co Cork
We had less than 15mm of rain during the week, so conditions remain very dry. This has dropped growth back in to the low 30s.
Our highest covers in the grass-only treatment are below 900kg DM/ha, and with sward quality good we are grazing out to 3.5-4cm. We’ve pushed out the rotation length to 24-28 days.
Regrowth is slow due to the moisture stress. We are applying 1 unit N/day after grazing in the form of protected urea. As pre-grazing yields are low, we will begin feeding 5kg silage per head this week.
Concentrates have also increased to 6kg/head/day to try build the average farm cover up to 600kg/DM/ha.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 2.84
Growth Rate (kg/day) 31
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 177
Yield (l/cow) 19.6
Fat % 4.82
Protein% 3.78
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.73
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 6
Damien McEntee – Co Monaghan
Farm cover is still running very tight. We have been feeding some silage since the first week in August. Thankfully we got plenty of rain at the weekend.
Covers are starting to bounce back, but we will continue with 5kg of concentrates and 3kg of silage for now.
We were able to hold farm cover above 500kg up until this week, but we’re confident recovery will be quick. We’re blanket spreading the milking platform at the minute with 1.5 bags/ac of 18-6-12.
We have a good volume of dairy washings and watery slurry spread in the last few weeks as well. We’re currently repairing farm roadway surfaces and widening some tracks.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.19
Growth Rate (kg/day) 39
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 154
Yield (l/cow) 17.9
Fat % 4.59
Protein% 3.85
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.55
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5
Kevin Brennan – Paulstown, Co Kilkenny
At the minute we are getting away with just feeding concentrates.
We are managing to hold covers with the little rain we’ve got, but we will find it very hard to build covers at this stage in the year, unless we keep silage in the diet throughout the rest of the grazing season.
We are lucky that we have ample silage in the clamp and have avoided opening it so far, but continued feeding 4kg of concentrates throughout the summer in addition to some surplus bales fed.
Scanning has gone well, with 94% of cows scanned in-calf with all calving over a 10-week period. All heifers went in-calf to first service.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.86
Growth Rate (kg/day) 23
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 139
Yield (l/cow) 21
Fat % 4.3
Protein% 3.4
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.73
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5
About half of the country is suffering from a soil moisture deficit. All of the area below an imaginary line from Louth to Galway and down to west Cork is showing a deficit of 50-70mm.
Of course there are areas within this that are suffering more and other areas that are suffering less, due to having got sufficient rain in those thunderstorms almost two weeks ago.
Other parts of the country are also doing fine. In fact, the dry spell is great outside of this area, with good grass growth and great utilisation.
For these farmers, the focus should be on building up covers for the autumn and keeping inputs as low as possible.
It’s a different story for those affected by poor grass growth. Many are already feeding high levels of meal and silage. With no rain in the forecast, it looks like this will continue for another few weeks.
This is at a time when farms should be building grass. The longer the dry spell goes on for, the smaller the bounce in growth will be.
It’s hard to know what is the right thing to do, but one thing is for sure and that is; if feeding a lot of supplement then you must be on a long rotation length and you must make sure that cows are grazing down well.
This becomes more difficult when supplement is fed, because it’s easier for cows to get their intake at the feed barrier than work hard for grass out in the field.
There might be bawling, but cows will have to get on with the job of cleaning out paddocks well.
Separately, some farmers are asking about reseeding, given how good the weather is. It is late in the season for it and while grass will germinate OK, it could be difficult to get it sprayed and grazed before land gets too wet in October or November.
This will mean less tillering and a more open sward next season, with a higher likelihood of weeds. If hoping to get clover or multispecies established then it’s far too late now – better to wait until next year.
Average grass growth across the country is 36kg per day, but within this there is big variation, with some farms outside of soil moisture deficits growing 70kg/day while some dry farms are growing less than 20kg/day.On farms growing less than 30kg per day, hold off on spreading the final round of nitrogen until moisture is present. There are still two weeks left in the open season for fertiliser. While conditions are ideal for reseeding, it is late in the season and the opportunities for spraying and grazing this year are limited.If short of grass, consider selling culls or drying off low yielding cows as a means of reducing demand for feed. Eoin McGrath – Teagasc Curtins, Co Cork
We had less than 15mm of rain during the week, so conditions remain very dry. This has dropped growth back in to the low 30s.
Our highest covers in the grass-only treatment are below 900kg DM/ha, and with sward quality good we are grazing out to 3.5-4cm. We’ve pushed out the rotation length to 24-28 days.
Regrowth is slow due to the moisture stress. We are applying 1 unit N/day after grazing in the form of protected urea. As pre-grazing yields are low, we will begin feeding 5kg silage per head this week.
Concentrates have also increased to 6kg/head/day to try build the average farm cover up to 600kg/DM/ha.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 2.84
Growth Rate (kg/day) 31
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 177
Yield (l/cow) 19.6
Fat % 4.82
Protein% 3.78
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.73
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 6
Damien McEntee – Co Monaghan
Farm cover is still running very tight. We have been feeding some silage since the first week in August. Thankfully we got plenty of rain at the weekend.
Covers are starting to bounce back, but we will continue with 5kg of concentrates and 3kg of silage for now.
We were able to hold farm cover above 500kg up until this week, but we’re confident recovery will be quick. We’re blanket spreading the milking platform at the minute with 1.5 bags/ac of 18-6-12.
We have a good volume of dairy washings and watery slurry spread in the last few weeks as well. We’re currently repairing farm roadway surfaces and widening some tracks.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.19
Growth Rate (kg/day) 39
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 154
Yield (l/cow) 17.9
Fat % 4.59
Protein% 3.85
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.55
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5
Kevin Brennan – Paulstown, Co Kilkenny
At the minute we are getting away with just feeding concentrates.
We are managing to hold covers with the little rain we’ve got, but we will find it very hard to build covers at this stage in the year, unless we keep silage in the diet throughout the rest of the grazing season.
We are lucky that we have ample silage in the clamp and have avoided opening it so far, but continued feeding 4kg of concentrates throughout the summer in addition to some surplus bales fed.
Scanning has gone well, with 94% of cows scanned in-calf with all calving over a 10-week period. All heifers went in-calf to first service.
Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.86
Growth Rate (kg/day) 23
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 139
Yield (l/cow) 21
Fat % 4.3
Protein% 3.4
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.73
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5
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