As expected, the start of the new grass season is challenging. High rainfall in January and the early part of February has delayed the turnout to grass for many farmers.

Those on drier land are faring better, but only just. On/off grazing is the order of the day. That is to let cows out hungry for two or three hours and then bring them back in. The trick is to let them go out hungry so they will keep their heads down grazing and limit the amount of walking around they do.

Importantly, by letting cows out hungry you are not reducing their overall intakes, you are simply manipulating when they eat. People have set eating times so cows can too. Ideally, cows should be locked away from silage for six or seven hours prior to going to grass. This can be the difference between doing damage or not.

Freshly calved cows have low intakes so they will eat very little grass. Between grass, silage and meal they will probably only eat 8kg or 10kg/day in the first week after calving.

This will increase by about 1kg/day for every week after calving. The point is – only allocate a small area of grass; otherwise it will be walked into the ground and wasted.

With most farms way behind target in terms of area of the farm grazed, when ground conditions improve they will have to go hard to increase area grazed in February. The target is to graze a little over 30% in the first four weeks. This means grazing lighter covers and it may mean reducing the amount of supplement fed.

  • Average growth rates over the winter were about 5kg/day.
  • Ground conditions are challenging and cows can only go out for a few hours every day.
  • When the weather picks up get cows out grazing lighter covers.
  • Jargon buster: Intakes

    When we talk about intakes, we refer to what the cow is eating in terms of kilos of dry matter. Figures quoted are usually estimates based on assumptions. The cows will quickly tell you if your estimations are correct.

    Brendan Horan

    Teagasc Curtins Farm, Cork

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.76

    Growth rate (kg/day) 7

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 7.36

    Yield (l/cow/day) 15.42

    Fat % 5.11

    Protein % 3.82

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.4

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4

    We have 8% of the farm grazed and 49% of the herd calved. Ground conditions are sticky and while we were out for a few nights last week we have been on/off grazing for most of this week. Cows are getting 5kg of grass per allocation and we are grazing light covers of around 700 to 800kg/ha. Cows are getting a small bit of silage when they come in at night. On average, I’d say they are getting about 2kg of silage per day but some days they get more. We will increase grass intakes incrementally when they start eating more.

    Donal Patton

    Teagasc Ballyhaise, Cavan

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9

    Growth rate (kg/day) 3

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 817

    Yield (l/cow/day) N/A

    Fat % N/A

    Protein % N/A

    Milk solids (kg/cow) N/A

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3

    We are only just starting to calve, with 11% calved to date. Average farm cover is a little below target at 817kg/ha. We recorded a growth rate of 3kg/day since the last walk which I was surprised at as some paddocks have gone backwards. We have no slurry or nitrogen spread as land is just too wet. We hope to get out grazing next week but we will need a few dry days for land to dry out first. Freshly calved cows are on 3kg of meal and silage ad lib. We are now in the second year of the current trial looking at stocking rate and grazing days.

    John Tully

    Mountbellew College, Galway

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.5

    Growth rate (kg/day) 3

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 950

    Yield (l/cow/day) N/A

    Fat % N/A

    Protein % N/A

    Milk solids (kg/cow) N/A

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4

    Land is very wet here at the minute. I’m letting cows out for a few hours after the morning milking. It frees up space in the yard but it’s hard to avoid doing damage. We put down a lot of spur roads last summer so now every paddock is no more than 100m from a roadway, which should make life a lot easier this year. We spread 23 units/acre of urea on the driest one-third of the farm. We will probably spread one bag/acre of urea whenever we get to go again. Cows started calving on 5 February and we have 15% calved to date.

    Fergal Coughlan

    Clonakilty Ag College

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.85

    Growth rate (kg/day) 8

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 816

    Yield (l/cow/day) N/A

    Fat % 3.53

    Protein % 4.78

    Milk solids (kg/cow) N/A

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4

    Ground conditions are borderline at the moment. I’d say we missed about six or seven grazings so far this year. But we have no other option but to keep them in as too much damage would be done otherwise. We have 50% of the cows calved now. Our planned start of calving was 1 February but the first cow calved on 23 January. We are more or less on target for average farm cover and there is no difference between the clover and non-clover paddocks. The forecast is good so I will reduce the meal to 2 or 3kg and start grazing lighter covers to increase the area grazed.

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    Contrasting ground conditions across the country