Graham Lofthouse, who runs a 540-ewe flock in a rotational paddock system beside Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, is getting increasingly concerned about grass growth.
“It is really bad. We are only getting 29kg of dry matter per hectare per day,” said Graham. “It is just too dry. We have only had 7mm of rain since the start of May, and only 3mm in the second half of April.”
Digging in new drains on his farm, Graham was three feet down and still didn’t find any moisture.
“Back in the drought of 2018, it was dry later on in the year but we have never had it so dry so early,” said Graham.
He believes this is having a serious effect on the growth rate of the grass, with poor nitrogen uptake in the fields. Soil temperature has been low this spring as ground temperatures failed to get above 6°C until after the middle of April.
Options for drought
As a result, Graham has had to move stock around more and also open up planned silage fields for grazing. Luckily, he has been offered a neighbouring farmer’s field for extra silage if the situation does not improve over summer.
Graham will look to sell his bought-in grazing cattle soon to provide grass for his sheep
Further, he has a good stock from last year carried over so is not needing as much silage as usual.
If the drought continues, Graham will look to sell his bought-in grazing cattle soon to provide grass for his sheep. He can also free up grass by selling off cull ewes once the lambs are 60 days old.
“We need a plan B and C and D for the farm this summer,” he said.
Rain relief in Wigtownshire
Robert Fleming, who farms in Wigtownshire in the southwest of the country, has seen a massive turnaround in his grass over the last seven days.
Robert believes he will be back to 100kgDM/hectare with the recent rain in the South West of Scotland.
“We have had 9.2mm in the last six weeks with the vast majority of that in the last 36 hours,” said Robert. “Until then we were in real trouble, but it looks to be swinging the other way with wetter weather forecast.”
The rain means Robert is confident of achieving up to 100kg of dry matter of growth per hectare. He is applying more fertiliser after the rain and is confident he can shut off fields for silage.
Former Scottish beef farmer of the year Robert runs an intensive 250ha all-grass unit with a base of 150 suckler cows topped up with at least 500 bought-in cattle a year.
However, this year he has taken half that number on to the farm as the grass growth was not in the farm to support the livestock.
Robert has bought half the amount of store cattle this year due to poor grass growth. He tries to buy direct from the producer and looks for something with at least 50% native genetivs.
“We were running tight this spring,” said Robert. “We are 250 head down on what we would usually carry.
“The soil moisture has been reading 144 even after the recent rain. Anything above 40 inhibits grass growth and 200 is an Australian-level drought. So 144 is very high for this part of the country.”
However, Robert thinks they are back on track to make a late first cut of silage.
Fodder
Robert is planting kale for a winter fodder. He hopes to get 150 young store cattle onto the three paddocks of kale at the start of November.
Robert is planting kale to winter younger cattle on this year. He plans to have the cattle on from the end of November until January stocked at 12 cattle per hectare.
He plans to graze them 12 cattle to the hectare and keep them on the kale until the end of January. To supplement the diet he drops wrapped silage bales in the field which he cuts open over winter.
The silage is made dry, almost like a haylage, and will be put into the field two weeks after planting to minimise putting tractors across the field. The only challenge is keeping the crows off and needing to patch the bales when you spot damage.
Graham Lofthouse, who runs a 540-ewe flock in a rotational paddock system beside Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, is getting increasingly concerned about grass growth.
“It is really bad. We are only getting 29kg of dry matter per hectare per day,” said Graham. “It is just too dry. We have only had 7mm of rain since the start of May, and only 3mm in the second half of April.”
Digging in new drains on his farm, Graham was three feet down and still didn’t find any moisture.
“Back in the drought of 2018, it was dry later on in the year but we have never had it so dry so early,” said Graham.
He believes this is having a serious effect on the growth rate of the grass, with poor nitrogen uptake in the fields. Soil temperature has been low this spring as ground temperatures failed to get above 6°C until after the middle of April.
Options for drought
As a result, Graham has had to move stock around more and also open up planned silage fields for grazing. Luckily, he has been offered a neighbouring farmer’s field for extra silage if the situation does not improve over summer.
Graham will look to sell his bought-in grazing cattle soon to provide grass for his sheep
Further, he has a good stock from last year carried over so is not needing as much silage as usual.
If the drought continues, Graham will look to sell his bought-in grazing cattle soon to provide grass for his sheep. He can also free up grass by selling off cull ewes once the lambs are 60 days old.
“We need a plan B and C and D for the farm this summer,” he said.
Rain relief in Wigtownshire
Robert Fleming, who farms in Wigtownshire in the southwest of the country, has seen a massive turnaround in his grass over the last seven days.
Robert believes he will be back to 100kgDM/hectare with the recent rain in the South West of Scotland.
“We have had 9.2mm in the last six weeks with the vast majority of that in the last 36 hours,” said Robert. “Until then we were in real trouble, but it looks to be swinging the other way with wetter weather forecast.”
The rain means Robert is confident of achieving up to 100kg of dry matter of growth per hectare. He is applying more fertiliser after the rain and is confident he can shut off fields for silage.
Former Scottish beef farmer of the year Robert runs an intensive 250ha all-grass unit with a base of 150 suckler cows topped up with at least 500 bought-in cattle a year.
However, this year he has taken half that number on to the farm as the grass growth was not in the farm to support the livestock.
Robert has bought half the amount of store cattle this year due to poor grass growth. He tries to buy direct from the producer and looks for something with at least 50% native genetivs.
“We were running tight this spring,” said Robert. “We are 250 head down on what we would usually carry.
“The soil moisture has been reading 144 even after the recent rain. Anything above 40 inhibits grass growth and 200 is an Australian-level drought. So 144 is very high for this part of the country.”
However, Robert thinks they are back on track to make a late first cut of silage.
Fodder
Robert is planting kale for a winter fodder. He hopes to get 150 young store cattle onto the three paddocks of kale at the start of November.
Robert is planting kale to winter younger cattle on this year. He plans to have the cattle on from the end of November until January stocked at 12 cattle per hectare.
He plans to graze them 12 cattle to the hectare and keep them on the kale until the end of January. To supplement the diet he drops wrapped silage bales in the field which he cuts open over winter.
The silage is made dry, almost like a haylage, and will be put into the field two weeks after planting to minimise putting tractors across the field. The only challenge is keeping the crows off and needing to patch the bales when you spot damage.
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