Grass+ Beef: autumn conditions brings change in approach

This week has seen much cooler daytime temperatures as well as the return to more broken weather in terms of rainfall.

As a result soil moisture deficits have been reduced right across the country with some areas in the west actually reaching saturation point.

With heavy grass covers still on the majority of farms, the attention now needs to turn to getting these grazed out successfully.

Where ground conditions are still favourable try to graze the heaviest of the covers this week.

Allocation is really important at this time of year to make the most of every kilo of grass on the farm. Split bigger paddocks into two or three day grazing’s at most. Offering cattle a week’s grazing at this stage will result in poor graze-outs and unsettled stock for the second half of the week as they try to work their way through poorer quality grass left in the paddock.

Dry matter in grass will also be decreasing and therefore will be going through cattle at a greater rates. On early spring-calving suckler farms where weaning has not yet commenced, it is probably time to start weaning at least some of the thinner cows, first calvers and all cull cows.

Finishing cattle at grass may need to get an increase in meal feeding rates this week to maintain performance due to lower dry matter intakes from grass alone.

Grass supply on the farm is probably hitting peak at this point with an average farm cover of 1167kgDM/ha. It has been an excellent second half to the grazing season after a difficult April and May.

However, I definitely learned to trust the grass measurement figures more in the difficult period and one thing I will take with me into next year is that I don’t need to have such a bank of grass ahead of stock at all times. Thrive has been better this year and I think some of it is down to grazing lower covers more consistently.

We have drafted 21 heifers for slaughter off grass at this stage. The average carcase weight is around 260kg at 18 months old.

Weaning has commenced this week with 20 cows taken away from the calves at this stage. I started by weaning eight cull cows. Once these are dried off they will be going to good grass for a month to six weeks and get fed 4kg concentrate at grass to try and finish them prior to winter.

Next to be weaned was the first calvers and any thinner cow’s although most cows are in great condition at the moment.

The ewes were split into two groups post-weaning and the thinner group have been on good quality grass since, while the ewes in better condition were following a batch of cows and calves. At this point they too are getting the best quality grass in the run-up to breeding.

Ground conditions have taken a rapid turn for the worse over the past few days, due to heavy rainfall. Having the cows at grass is now getting difficult as while grass quality and supply is good, ground conditions are deteriorating and it is harder to restrict them onto smaller paddocks without doing damage.

The plan is to house some of the cows this weekend as they are now only three weeks out from calving. I like to have them in and settled on a silage diet prior to calving.

There is still a lot of grass on the farm, hopefully if conditions allow, the yearlings will be have another month at pasture. The heifers are receiving 1kg/day concentrates while the bulls are now on 3kg/day.