The settled weather this week has seen some of the programme farmers taking the opportunity to harvest first-cut silage.
Where silage swards received the correct levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potash through slurry and compound fertiliser, yields are on par with last year, despite poor weather earlier this spring delaying the onset of grass growth.
With grass growth at peak levels, the programme farmers are also in a position to increase winter fodder reserves by removing surplus grass from the grazing block as baled silage.
Fertiliser has been applied regularly to grazing ground over the past month to maximise grass growth during May and June.
Where silage has been harvested this week, silage ground will be sown out for second cut as soon as possible. Fertiliser applications will again be based on soil analysis to maximise yields.
Closing ground as early as possible provides the opportunity to harvest second-cut silage in July. If winter fodder reserves are still under pressure at this point, farmers still have the option of taking a third cut in September.
To determine how much silage is required for the winter period, the programme farmers are completing fodder budgets now. These budgets will be reviewed after harvesting second-cut. This means they know how much silage is required and the area of second- or third-cut silage that will need to be harvested.
Week in review
Settled weather is allowing the farms to get first-cut silage harvested.Silage is being wilted for a 24 hour period before harvesting in order to increase the dry matter of grass.Surplus grass is being removed from the grazing ground to boost silage reserves. First-cut silage ready to harvest
We have 47 acres of first-cut silage being harvested this week, with grass due to be mowed on Wednesday. Thankfully, the settled weather forecast will allow grass to be wilted for a 24-hour period before it is lifted and ensiled in the clamp.
With the poor spring, silage ground was late to receive fertiliser. I finally managed to sow ground out at the end of April and at the time, I was not expecting silage to be ready for cutting until the first week of June.
However, grass growth has really taken off in May and in the past fortnight, growth rates have been extremely high and swards have bulked out well.
The swards would still be lighter than last year, but I am pleased with how well grass has responded to nitrogen in recent weeks.
We took a few samples from silage swards last Thursday and had them analysed to determine if grass was suitable for ensiling.
The results indicated that grass sugars were more than adequate and there was no risk of residual nitrogen in the sward, so we went ahead and booked the contractor for this week.
While yields could be increased by postponing cutting date for another week, I would be losing out on silage quality which means having to feed more concentrates during winter.
However, while yields may be slightly lower, we will be able to make up any shortage in winter fodder in the second cut.
After first-cut has been lifted, silage ground will get slurry and fertiliser with the aim to harvest second-cut in mid-July. This gives us options for the latter stages of the year.
Depending on silage yields, we have the option of closing up a small area for a third cut of bales if we feel we are running tight for winter fodder.
With silage ground also available for grazing after July, we will be able to build grass covers for August and September which will hopefully extend grazing well into autumn.
Alternatively, having the silage ground back in the grazing rotation early means we will hopefully be able to reseed some ground in August.
Surplus grass
Along with first-cut silage, we have cut six acres of grazing ground in the past two weeks and made 35 bales of silage from surplus grass.
By measuring grass growth each week, I have identified another three acres of grazing to cut and mow inside the next 10 days. This grass will also be baled.
The grass aftermath will provide high quality grazing for cows in the next rotation and hopefully give cow fertility a boost.
Reseeding grassland and breeding under way
After a difficult spring, we are catching up on the planned workload for spring. This includes reseeding 4.5 acres of silage ground last Friday.
The field was damaged in October making a late cut of silage. I had hoped to get the field reseeded in April, but weather was not suitable.
Ground was ploughed, power-harrowed and levelled before sowing grass seed. I sowed five bags across the 4.5 acres and I have worked out reseeding costs at £100/acre which includes all field work and grass seed.
Farmyard manure was applied to ground prior to ploughing. The field needs lime, but we are holding off until later in the year as we hope to get more ground reseeded and it will be more cost-effective and practical to spread lime then.
The reseed will be carefully managed to ensure it becomes fully established. As the field has no water and fencing, it is not ideal for livestock, it will not be grazed this year. Instead, I will take a couple of lighter cuts of silage from the sward.
The stock bulls went out with the cows on 15 May. This year, I am running a Limousin and a new Simmental bull with cows rather than 100% Limousin sires as I need to get a bit of hybrid vigour into my herd.
Along with the cows, I have 20 replacement heifers at grass. After getting the vet to check heifers prior to breeding, I synchronised 17 of the group and used a Shorthorn sire to AI 15 of the heifers two weeks ago. The group is now running with a Limousin stock bull to cover any repeats.
There are 56 cows with calves at foot at grass and six cows left to calve. Going by scanning dates, four of these cows should be calved in the next fortnight. We are managing to pull late cows forward in calving date as last year we would have had 11 cows left to calve by the end of May.
After a terrible start to the calving period, things settled down. We identified mycotoxins as a key cause of cows aborting or losing calves. We lost nine calves in total and ended up culling eight cows that lost calves.
The settled weather this week has seen some of the programme farmers taking the opportunity to harvest first-cut silage.
Where silage swards received the correct levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potash through slurry and compound fertiliser, yields are on par with last year, despite poor weather earlier this spring delaying the onset of grass growth.
With grass growth at peak levels, the programme farmers are also in a position to increase winter fodder reserves by removing surplus grass from the grazing block as baled silage.
Fertiliser has been applied regularly to grazing ground over the past month to maximise grass growth during May and June.
Where silage has been harvested this week, silage ground will be sown out for second cut as soon as possible. Fertiliser applications will again be based on soil analysis to maximise yields.
Closing ground as early as possible provides the opportunity to harvest second-cut silage in July. If winter fodder reserves are still under pressure at this point, farmers still have the option of taking a third cut in September.
To determine how much silage is required for the winter period, the programme farmers are completing fodder budgets now. These budgets will be reviewed after harvesting second-cut. This means they know how much silage is required and the area of second- or third-cut silage that will need to be harvested.
Week in review
Settled weather is allowing the farms to get first-cut silage harvested.Silage is being wilted for a 24 hour period before harvesting in order to increase the dry matter of grass.Surplus grass is being removed from the grazing ground to boost silage reserves. First-cut silage ready to harvest
We have 47 acres of first-cut silage being harvested this week, with grass due to be mowed on Wednesday. Thankfully, the settled weather forecast will allow grass to be wilted for a 24-hour period before it is lifted and ensiled in the clamp.
With the poor spring, silage ground was late to receive fertiliser. I finally managed to sow ground out at the end of April and at the time, I was not expecting silage to be ready for cutting until the first week of June.
However, grass growth has really taken off in May and in the past fortnight, growth rates have been extremely high and swards have bulked out well.
The swards would still be lighter than last year, but I am pleased with how well grass has responded to nitrogen in recent weeks.
We took a few samples from silage swards last Thursday and had them analysed to determine if grass was suitable for ensiling.
The results indicated that grass sugars were more than adequate and there was no risk of residual nitrogen in the sward, so we went ahead and booked the contractor for this week.
While yields could be increased by postponing cutting date for another week, I would be losing out on silage quality which means having to feed more concentrates during winter.
However, while yields may be slightly lower, we will be able to make up any shortage in winter fodder in the second cut.
After first-cut has been lifted, silage ground will get slurry and fertiliser with the aim to harvest second-cut in mid-July. This gives us options for the latter stages of the year.
Depending on silage yields, we have the option of closing up a small area for a third cut of bales if we feel we are running tight for winter fodder.
With silage ground also available for grazing after July, we will be able to build grass covers for August and September which will hopefully extend grazing well into autumn.
Alternatively, having the silage ground back in the grazing rotation early means we will hopefully be able to reseed some ground in August.
Surplus grass
Along with first-cut silage, we have cut six acres of grazing ground in the past two weeks and made 35 bales of silage from surplus grass.
By measuring grass growth each week, I have identified another three acres of grazing to cut and mow inside the next 10 days. This grass will also be baled.
The grass aftermath will provide high quality grazing for cows in the next rotation and hopefully give cow fertility a boost.
Reseeding grassland and breeding under way
After a difficult spring, we are catching up on the planned workload for spring. This includes reseeding 4.5 acres of silage ground last Friday.
The field was damaged in October making a late cut of silage. I had hoped to get the field reseeded in April, but weather was not suitable.
Ground was ploughed, power-harrowed and levelled before sowing grass seed. I sowed five bags across the 4.5 acres and I have worked out reseeding costs at £100/acre which includes all field work and grass seed.
Farmyard manure was applied to ground prior to ploughing. The field needs lime, but we are holding off until later in the year as we hope to get more ground reseeded and it will be more cost-effective and practical to spread lime then.
The reseed will be carefully managed to ensure it becomes fully established. As the field has no water and fencing, it is not ideal for livestock, it will not be grazed this year. Instead, I will take a couple of lighter cuts of silage from the sward.
The stock bulls went out with the cows on 15 May. This year, I am running a Limousin and a new Simmental bull with cows rather than 100% Limousin sires as I need to get a bit of hybrid vigour into my herd.
Along with the cows, I have 20 replacement heifers at grass. After getting the vet to check heifers prior to breeding, I synchronised 17 of the group and used a Shorthorn sire to AI 15 of the heifers two weeks ago. The group is now running with a Limousin stock bull to cover any repeats.
There are 56 cows with calves at foot at grass and six cows left to calve. Going by scanning dates, four of these cows should be calved in the next fortnight. We are managing to pull late cows forward in calving date as last year we would have had 11 cows left to calve by the end of May.
After a terrible start to the calving period, things settled down. We identified mycotoxins as a key cause of cows aborting or losing calves. We lost nine calves in total and ended up culling eight cows that lost calves.
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