Grass growth figures remain varied across the country after a mixed bag of rain.
Heavy rain came to those who could have done without, while smaller showers fell where it was badly needed.
Heavier farms who had been growing well are likely to start getting more difficult to manage in the coming weeks.
Average covers are on target for the most part on these farms and maintaining a 30-day round should be the focus. Divide paddocks up into 12-hour breaks using strip wires to limit the damage after heavy showers of rain.
On drier farms, which are still struggling to grow grass and where farm covers are low, look to slow cows down as much as possible. Extend out the rotation to a 50-day round, allocating one-fiftieth of the farm per day and continue to feed supplement heavily.
12-hour breaks
These farms should also be using strip wires and 12-hour breaks to keep fresh grass in front of the cows and ensure there’s some level of grass intakes after each milking.
With higher levels of clover in paddocks at this time of year, it’s important to stay wary of the risks.
After periods of rain where grass is wet and animals are hungry, there is higher frequency of bloat.
‘Breakfast breaks’ can be implemented by fencing off a corner of a fresh paddock for cows post-milking. Similarly, 12-hour breaks will help to reduce the amount of clover animals have access to, as they will selectively graze this first.
Finally adding bloat oil to water troughs will help to reduce instances.
It must be in the trough for 24-hours before grazing clover swards to ensure the animal has ingested some.
On heavy farms, allocate 12-hour breaks and look to stick to a 30-day round. Aim for pre-grazing covers below 1700kg/DM/ha.On drier farms where growth is low, extend out the rotation and supplement heavily.Risk period for clover. Take preventative measures for bloat issues.Deadline approaching for nitrogen and phosphorous applications. Get the last round of fertiliser out over the next week. Ronan Joyce, Castlebar, Co Mayo
Grass is going well at the moment. We were building cover so we’ve been feeding palm kernel to the cows after milking. They are getting around 2kg per cow. We’re milking once-a-day currently. We do this every year for the last two rounds as out blocks come back into the grazing platform and some of the walks can be long. There’s a lot of jersey in the cows so these walks aren’t a problem and the cows can do the solids.
There was a lot of rain over the last week so we’re back on a 24-hour strip wire. We’re avoiding heavier peaty paddocks for now to prevent damage and they’re going into the drier ground.
Arthur Sweetman, Carrig-on-Bannow, Co Wexford
We’re still being missed by most of the rain. We only got 11mm in the last week. We’ve dropped the demand back to 17kg/DM/ha by feeding supplement heavily.
Cows are currently getting the 4kg of meal in the parlour, 6kg of maize silage and 4kg of red clover silage. There is rain forecast though and we’d be hoping to grow 60kg/ha per day for the rest of September when the rain does come.
There’s 40% of the farm in good clover and this is doing well at the moment. We went out with a bag/acre of 27-2.5-5 on non-clover paddocks last week and I’d say this will be the last fertiliser the farm will get.
Eoin McCormack,Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork
We’ve been lucky here all along this year, we never got a really dry spell and haven’t had to feed any silage or palm kernel as of yet. We’re just feeding the 2kg of meal in the parlour to continue to build our average cover.
The figures from this week are from the grass pus clover trial on 150kg/N//ha. The clover is motoring away well. We’re probably going to have to start using breakfast breaks now on the paddocks with very high levels of clover.
All of the grazed ground got slurry or parlour washings in the past two weeks and the farm will get one more round of 12 units/acre of protected urea in the next week.
John Dunne, Portarlington, Co Laois
The farm is growing well at the moment; we got a bit of rain in the last week with more forecast in the coming week. We’re planning to take the fourth cut off the red clover silage before the weekend.
We’ll get one more grazing off this then with the lighter dairy beef stock before closing. The red clover bales will be left out on the 20 acres of fodder rape, where we’ll outwinter the weanlings.
The fodder rape is in 10 days now, which is well ahead of previous years. We will go out with one more round of fertiliser before the deadline.
This will go out as a half bag of protected urea to the acre. Overall, cattle are thriving well. It’s been a great year for stock.
Ger McSweeney, Milltown, Co Cork
Our growth is holding well with perfect conditions for growing grass over the past few weeks. We’ve always got rain when it was needed so far this year, which has been a big benefit.
We’ll be looking to start weaning the bulls by the first week of October, so they’ve started on a bit of ration now. The heifers will be weaned two weeks later and they’ll start getting their ration at the end of the week.
We’re trying to give the clover a good chance this year, so we pulled the nitrogen on those paddocks over six weeks ago. We’ll graze these tight before the winter and give them that chance.
The rest of the farm, which is grass only, will be getting half a bag of 29-0-14 this week.
Peter Doyle, Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath
The farm is still fairly dry at the moment; growth had been back to 30kg/day throughout August with the moisture deficit but we got 30ml of much-needed rain over the last seven days. The growth has jumped back up to 51kg/day as of Monday. We had to supplement one-third of the cows with silage for two weeks to try and build up the average farm cover but we’ll be removing that from the end of this week. The calves were weighed recently, with an average weight of 285kg and an average daily gain of 1.33kg/day. We’ve spread the last round of fertiliser last week. The grass only swards got half a bag/acre of 29-0-14. The clover swards got a half bag/acre of the same product.
Grass growth figures remain varied across the country after a mixed bag of rain.
Heavy rain came to those who could have done without, while smaller showers fell where it was badly needed.
Heavier farms who had been growing well are likely to start getting more difficult to manage in the coming weeks.
Average covers are on target for the most part on these farms and maintaining a 30-day round should be the focus. Divide paddocks up into 12-hour breaks using strip wires to limit the damage after heavy showers of rain.
On drier farms, which are still struggling to grow grass and where farm covers are low, look to slow cows down as much as possible. Extend out the rotation to a 50-day round, allocating one-fiftieth of the farm per day and continue to feed supplement heavily.
12-hour breaks
These farms should also be using strip wires and 12-hour breaks to keep fresh grass in front of the cows and ensure there’s some level of grass intakes after each milking.
With higher levels of clover in paddocks at this time of year, it’s important to stay wary of the risks.
After periods of rain where grass is wet and animals are hungry, there is higher frequency of bloat.
‘Breakfast breaks’ can be implemented by fencing off a corner of a fresh paddock for cows post-milking. Similarly, 12-hour breaks will help to reduce the amount of clover animals have access to, as they will selectively graze this first.
Finally adding bloat oil to water troughs will help to reduce instances.
It must be in the trough for 24-hours before grazing clover swards to ensure the animal has ingested some.
On heavy farms, allocate 12-hour breaks and look to stick to a 30-day round. Aim for pre-grazing covers below 1700kg/DM/ha.On drier farms where growth is low, extend out the rotation and supplement heavily.Risk period for clover. Take preventative measures for bloat issues.Deadline approaching for nitrogen and phosphorous applications. Get the last round of fertiliser out over the next week. Ronan Joyce, Castlebar, Co Mayo
Grass is going well at the moment. We were building cover so we’ve been feeding palm kernel to the cows after milking. They are getting around 2kg per cow. We’re milking once-a-day currently. We do this every year for the last two rounds as out blocks come back into the grazing platform and some of the walks can be long. There’s a lot of jersey in the cows so these walks aren’t a problem and the cows can do the solids.
There was a lot of rain over the last week so we’re back on a 24-hour strip wire. We’re avoiding heavier peaty paddocks for now to prevent damage and they’re going into the drier ground.
Arthur Sweetman, Carrig-on-Bannow, Co Wexford
We’re still being missed by most of the rain. We only got 11mm in the last week. We’ve dropped the demand back to 17kg/DM/ha by feeding supplement heavily.
Cows are currently getting the 4kg of meal in the parlour, 6kg of maize silage and 4kg of red clover silage. There is rain forecast though and we’d be hoping to grow 60kg/ha per day for the rest of September when the rain does come.
There’s 40% of the farm in good clover and this is doing well at the moment. We went out with a bag/acre of 27-2.5-5 on non-clover paddocks last week and I’d say this will be the last fertiliser the farm will get.
Eoin McCormack,Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork
We’ve been lucky here all along this year, we never got a really dry spell and haven’t had to feed any silage or palm kernel as of yet. We’re just feeding the 2kg of meal in the parlour to continue to build our average cover.
The figures from this week are from the grass pus clover trial on 150kg/N//ha. The clover is motoring away well. We’re probably going to have to start using breakfast breaks now on the paddocks with very high levels of clover.
All of the grazed ground got slurry or parlour washings in the past two weeks and the farm will get one more round of 12 units/acre of protected urea in the next week.
John Dunne, Portarlington, Co Laois
The farm is growing well at the moment; we got a bit of rain in the last week with more forecast in the coming week. We’re planning to take the fourth cut off the red clover silage before the weekend.
We’ll get one more grazing off this then with the lighter dairy beef stock before closing. The red clover bales will be left out on the 20 acres of fodder rape, where we’ll outwinter the weanlings.
The fodder rape is in 10 days now, which is well ahead of previous years. We will go out with one more round of fertiliser before the deadline.
This will go out as a half bag of protected urea to the acre. Overall, cattle are thriving well. It’s been a great year for stock.
Ger McSweeney, Milltown, Co Cork
Our growth is holding well with perfect conditions for growing grass over the past few weeks. We’ve always got rain when it was needed so far this year, which has been a big benefit.
We’ll be looking to start weaning the bulls by the first week of October, so they’ve started on a bit of ration now. The heifers will be weaned two weeks later and they’ll start getting their ration at the end of the week.
We’re trying to give the clover a good chance this year, so we pulled the nitrogen on those paddocks over six weeks ago. We’ll graze these tight before the winter and give them that chance.
The rest of the farm, which is grass only, will be getting half a bag of 29-0-14 this week.
Peter Doyle, Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath
The farm is still fairly dry at the moment; growth had been back to 30kg/day throughout August with the moisture deficit but we got 30ml of much-needed rain over the last seven days. The growth has jumped back up to 51kg/day as of Monday. We had to supplement one-third of the cows with silage for two weeks to try and build up the average farm cover but we’ll be removing that from the end of this week. The calves were weighed recently, with an average weight of 285kg and an average daily gain of 1.33kg/day. We’ve spread the last round of fertiliser last week. The grass only swards got half a bag/acre of 29-0-14. The clover swards got a half bag/acre of the same product.
SHARING OPTIONS