Grass growth has really been exceptional in Kilkenny for the last month. Instead of growth rates between 50 and 60kg per day, we are recording growth rates between 100 and 120kg per day. That’s double the growth on 120ha every day for the last month, which means there is a lot of feed on the farm this September compared to other years.

How did it come about? Was it more nitrogen? Since it started, the farm has remained well within bag nitrogen limits (250kg/ha) set by the nitrates directive. Remember the 120ha are all available to the milking cows so all acres are managed the same.

On some farms, less is spread in some fields relative to others allowing for some shifting of bag nitrogen between land parcels.

So what’s the outline plan for bag nitrogen? In Kilkenny, the first taste of bag nitrogen is spread in January (urea 46% N). Another blanket follows in March and then from April onwards a nitrogen and sulphur combination (ASN – 14% sulphur) is spread on a weekly basis once paddocks have been grazed out. In total this year, 35 units of sulphur per acre has been spread. That’s a good bit of sulphur compared to what most farmers are applying. I know a lot of farmers that will spread maybe one bag of ASN per acre – not 2.5.

In late June and July, muriate of potash (0:0:50) was spread on those paddocks low in potassium (K). The thinking with the potash is to fix the K deficit in those paddocks and help prevent soils drying out as much as possible – the low-cost irrigator.

Again a lot of farmers will apply a trickle of potassium but not a product like 0:0:50 that has the power to fix a deficit.

The product 10:10:20 was spread in April on those paddocks short in phosphorus. The farm only had an allocation of 16kg of phosphorus per hectare.

The plan for paddocks cut last weekend (50 acres) is to spread them with 25 units of nitrogen per acre of urea and 16 units per acre on the rest.

That will finish the spreading for 2017 as we will have reached 250kg of bag nitrogen per hectare.

Clover

What I haven’t mentioned so far is the abundance of clover in the swards. Remember all the paddocks in Kilkenny are monculture plus clover (one perennial grass variety and a clover). There has been much talk in the past of clover crashing out of swards due to high applications of bag nitrogen after three to four years. This is very definitely not the case in Kilkenny with plenty of clover in swards that were mostly sown in late 2009 and early 2010 (see videos).

So what’s happening to manage the surplus grass? Some 50 acres are being harvested this week as surplus silage cut down for wrapping. While it’s not ideal to be cutting grass in September, there is little choice when grass growth rates are so high.

As it is the cows are still going into covers of 2,500kg plus. While in August and September we are always trying to build grass across the farm for the second-last rotation, the fact of the matter is the farm reached peak grass cover 14 to 20 days ahead of time due to the exceptional growth rates, with the last three August weekly measurements all close to 100kg per day.

Managing clover

A strip wire is back in action on the farm this week to force the cows down into the sward rather than the herd wandering into a 10-acre paddock and selecting out the clover ahead of the ryegrass. The other aspect of this is the covers are heavy (2,500kg plus) so the wire helps to protect what’s ahead and get the best possible clean-out.

Farm full of grass

The farm is literally full of grass at the moment as the fertiliser strategy outlined above allied with rainfall at the right time has delivered exceptional growth rates. For each week in August, we got nearly on average 30mm of rain compared to the same period last year when we averaged closer to 8mm of rain per week. The cost saving of having this August grass is very big.

For many years, we would have been feeding meal and baled silage during August in an effort to lift farm covers into September – the cost often was is in the order of 3kg of meal and 2kg to 3kg of silage dry matter per day for 20 days for 300 odd cows or a net cost of €350 to €400 per day.

Yes, taking out bales and the exceptional August growth rates are a cost and there could yet be consequences for cutting in September (delayed aftergrass, reduced September growth rates). However, for the moment there is little option other than cut out the paddocks and graze out the heavy covers as good as possible. So far this year, the farm has grown 12.2 tonnes DM/ha compared to 11.2 t DM/ha to the same period last year. Meal fed to date is about 160kg of meal per cow.

July milk statement

Cows continue to milk well with yield between 15 and 16 litres per cow and the last test results were 4.6% fat and 3.98% protein (1.5kg MS/cow) at 128 SCC. The July milk statement shows the farm had a net milk price of just over 40 cent/litre incl VAT. This is a combination of prices from four fixed milk price schemes and the manufacturing price. The manufacturing price is the highest at the moment at over 39c/l excluding VAT while the fixed milk price schemes range between 33 and 36c/l ex-VAT. When the €500 of monthly deductions (Government services, etc) are taken out, the price bottom line comes to 39.5c/l for the month or just over €71,200 for the month’s milk. The average fat test for July was 4.55% compared with Glanbia Group average of 3.91% with the average protein at 3.85% compared with 3.45% for Glanbia.

Stock numbers

No big changes to report. The nine vasectomised stock bulls are gone. Remember they were purchased for €850 each on average and left the farm at €650 each in July. We lost one of the bulls to something like meningitis so the net cost to the business was €2,650 in total (€265 per head). Fertility scanning of the herd will be completed this week or early next week. Given the volume of grass on the farm there is no big rush to get rid of the cull cows (not in-calf) this year compared to other years.

The topless cubicle project is ongoing (see video) on two-thirds of the woodchip stand-off pad. The retaining walls are in place and the cubicle beds will be poured and space sharing cubicles fitted over coming days.

Key figures this week

  • Growth rate 83kg/day.
  • Milk solids 1.5 kg/day.
  • Average August fat 4.83%.
  • Average August protein 3.98%.