The mild but very wet weather is keeping the October grazed paddocks for next February moving along nicely. Some farmers are telling me there is already a cover over 1,000kg on some of the early October-grown paddocks. The temptation is to graze off paddocks with heavy covers but the value of that grass next spring is much more important.

If you had a paddock that wasn’t grazed out properly and has a cover of 1,500kg and if we get a dry spell of weather you might be tempted to graze it off. If they are green and growing with little dead material then have no fear they will be fine for next February. You’ll get 10 days grazing in that paddock next spring with fresh calvers compared to three days now and grass walked into the ground in the wet.

Growth rates are still coming in between 20kg and 30kg per day on most farms which is over twice the norm for this time of the year. The forecast remains mixed with rain and slightly cooler temperatures forecast for the weekend. On grass software packages you can forecast growth rates and project what will happen your average farm cover depending on what paddocks you graze. The rule remains to leave average farm cover between 500 and 700kg depending on your grass demand next February. If you have a compact calving and poor wintering facilities for milking cows then early spring grass is more important to you. Some farmers are talking about milking on into December.

Do your sums on the value of this milk, the cost of feed and the quality of silage you have. At low prices its very marginal and keeping condition score on cows might be more value than the effort of milking late calvers over the winter. Some farmer suggest it keeps the paid labour occupied but many might be better off taking a break from the farm.

Steven Fitzgerald

Curtins Farm

Stocking rate 2.96

Growth Rate 29

Average Farm Cover 690

Yield 13.75

Fat 5.53

Protein 4.34

Milk Solids

Supplement 2kg meal only

We have removed the silage because it was only messing up the grazing and we’re continuing with 3kg of meal and while we might finish up grazing a few days before plan. We sold the empty cows at €1/kilo and all the first calvers are dry, so 70% of the herd is milking. We will dry off another batch of cows every Wednesday from now on to further reduce numbers milking. Anything with condition score less than 2.75 has been dried off. The first paddock to be grazed next February has a cover of 1,100kg DM/ha. Grazing is sticky and cows are out for four to five hours depending on weather.

Donal Patton

Teagasc Ballyhaise

Stocking rate 2.9

Growth Rate 25

Average Farm Cover 650

Yield 13.1

Fat 5.14

Protein 4.00

Milk Solids 1.23

Supplement 3kg meal and silage

Cows came in full-time on Sunday and we have left them in since. We hope to get out for three or four days grazing to finish up for this year if it dries up sufficiently. We are feeding baled silage and 3kg of meal per cow and they are holding up well. I’m careful to hold some of the best bales for next spring.

We have 20 from 120 dried off or sold and another five cows will leave the herd this week. All youngstock are housed. Pit silage is 68 DMD, so thin cows won’t gain much condition if they are on that only.

Fergal Coughlan

Clonakilty

Stocking rate 2.2

Growth Rate 29

Average Farm Cover 690

Yield 12.8

Fat 5.55

Protein 4.48

Milk Solids 1.26

Supplement 3kg meal only

We have 32 cows dried off and six empty cows sold in the mart, so stocking rate is down. We are feeding 3kg of meal and have about 80% of the farm grazed. We will dry off another batch of cows this week to further reduce the stocking rate. Growth rate has dropped off to about 12kg per day and demand is 35kg per day, so we will be eating into farm cover quickly at that rate. Even on this farm, grazing is difficult and cows are on/off grazing, with the ground getting very heavy. With some more cows dried off and meal up to 3kg per day, we hope to stay out for another week or 10 days.

Liam Burke

Innishannon, Co Cork

Stocking rate 2.8

Growth Rate 20

Average Farm Cover 690

Yield 14.0

Fat 5.04

Protein 4.21

Milk Solids 1.38

Supplement 3 kg meal 2kg silage

We have managed to keep the cows out this week for grazing in between the very heavy rain. We have about another four paddocks (less than 10% of area) to graze and we hope to stay out at least by day until we get this cleaned off. We started feeding silage along the feed face and holding them in during the very heavy rain. We are feeding 3kg of meal in the parlour and so far about 264kg of meal is fed per cow this year. The cows are in good condition score even though meal fed is not that high. Empty rate is 10%.