Grass+: better response to early nitrogen applications

Growth rates have increased to an average of 61kg DM/ha. Variable growth rates have meant grass availability differs from farm to farm.

Depending on stocking rate all farms across the country should be looking at starting to build covers in the coming weeks.

The second-last round of fertiliser is already out on some farms.

If you have not yet spread the second-last round aim to spread 20-25 units of N per acre.

From August into September the response to nitrogen decreases.

For this reason, target spreading the last round of N at 25 to 30 units per acre in late August or early September.

Phosphorous (P) compound fertilisers should be targeted on paddocks with a low P index. Potassium (K) is not restricted but should be spread early as when left too late poor weather condition can result in the application being missed.

The benefits of early application also apply to slurry. Spreading watery slurry with low-emission slurry spreading (LESS) equipment means less contamination of grass.

As the rotation length is extended to 25 days plus there should be no issues with graze-outs on the next grazing. Spreading 2,500gals of water slurry per acre will supply the equivalent of 10 to 15 units of N per acre.

Barry Reilly – Teagasc Ballyhaise

The rain over the last week was very much welcomed. Growth this week is back up to 80kg DM/ha and all ground is back in the rotation which brings the stocking rate down to 2.54. Average farm cover (AFC) is at 600kg DM/ha which is ahead of target AFC on our autumn grass budget. We will keep an eye on this and if needs be we will take out a paddock or two for bales but we are not panicking yet. All of this years reseeds are coming on well and the clover seems to be establishing well also. These reseeded paddocks will get no more N for the rest of the year. The cows are performing well and SCC is 155 SCC for the last collection.

Fergal Coughlan – Clonakilty Ag College

On the grass-clover 150kg N/ha the stocking rate is 3.28 at the minute but with reseed ground and silage ground coming back into the rotation it will drop to 2.75. This allows us to build AFC for the Autumn without the requirement for too much supplement feed. We are following the autumn grass budget and will use this when making decisions for the rest of the year. We are allocating fresh grass to the cows after each milking if there is a danger of bloat. This technique works really well for us preventing bloat. We are spreading 13 units of N per acre at the minute after each grazing. We plan to blanket spread the whole farm at the end of August or early September.

Daniel Rundle – Ardee, Co Louth

We got 2 inches of rain over the weekend which has been a huge help. Growth rates have started going in the right direction lifting from 30kg DM/ha last week to 52kg DM/ha this week. All of the silage ground is on the milking platform which was a huge help when growth slowed up. We also increased the meal up to 5kg but avoided having to feed any silage. There are two paddocks with poor quality grass out for silage at the minute and when they are back in the rotation stocking rate will drop to 2.5LU/ha. We are a little bit behind on our autumn grass budget but we are hoping a low stocking rate and good growth will correct this in the next couple of weeks.

Matthew Murphy – Newford Herd, Athenry

Grass growth is well up this week on the farm and we are now starting to build covers for autumn grazing.

While it has been a difficult year for grass on many farms, conditions here have been decent and growth would be on par with previous years.

This allowed us to close an additional 23 acres of the grazing ground for silage in July which was cut last week alongside six acres of paddocks with heavy covers. This ground, as well as any paddock grazed over the last two weeks, received 26 units of protected urea.

There are 41 year-and-a-half-old heifers getting 3.5kg/day meal at grass and the plan is to draft these for slaughter throughout September.

Diarmuid Murray – Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon

Growth has improved slightly over the last fortnight and we are beginning to build covers ahead of stock. There is silage ground coming back available for grazing so this will help slow down the rotation in the next few weeks. I am following cattle with around 30 units of nitrogen post grazing to help boost grass growth.

The grass demand has been reduced significantly as we sold 18 Friesian steers and housed a further 38 cattle for finishing indoors recently. This leaves 28 mostly Angus heifers and bullocks for finishing off grass alongside the 122 calves at pasture. The finishing stock have been built up to 4kg/day of meal at this stage and we are about a fortnight away from drafting cattle for slaughter.

Shaun Diver – Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly

Fertiliser has been a priority job this week with over 30 acres getting a half bag of urea while a further 40 acres were spread with a bag of Pasture Sward. I have a small bit of slurry still in the yard from where the bulls were finished and I will target this to ground that needs it in the coming week.

I drafted 23 lambs for slaughter on Thursday. As well as this, the 20 cull ewes were sent for slaughter at the same time.

Cattle were weighed for BEEP-S recently. The bulls are gaining 1.32kg/day while the heifers are gaining 1.14kg/day currently. They are grazing good quality grass and are starting to creep-graze ahead of the cows. I will start feeding the bull calves meal at grass in about 10 days’ time.