Weather conditions combined with the jump in growth have seen graze-outs suffer on many farms.

Once pre-grazing yield exceeds 1,500kg/ha, no matter the quality of the grass, achieving a good clean-out becomes very difficult as stock will walk down grass and leave it behind.

This is especially seen in the current conditions as the wet weather has led to dirty roadways and grass being spoiled as stock walk over it in these high covers. The use of multiple entrances to paddocks will help.

In a 24hr to 36hr grazing situation, setting up strip wire at the back of the paddock leaving 10% or 15% of the field as fresh grass on the last grazing will help keep stock content and increase the utilisation on that final grazing, resulting in better graze-outs.

Surplus grass should be removed straight away, targeting a pre-grazing yield of 1,400kg/ha

Try to maintain this by matching demand with growth. This can be done by setting the stocking rates for the month of July between 3.5 and 4 LU/ha.

Given that the average growth over the last 10 years for July has been 65-70kg/day, keeping demand similar will make making managing grass a lot easier.

It’s important to reset the farm and manage grass quality in July as once we get into August the focus will turn to building covers to help extend the grazing season.

July is also a good month to save on concentrate fed. Reducing the concentrates has two big benefits. Firstly it will help control grass quality by increasing demand.

But also saving feed in July will allow you to feed that bit extra in August and September when you may need to slow down the rotation and build grass.

Ed Payne

Tulsk, Co Roscommon

We have a young herd here with 40% first lactation animals. We plan to take out a paddock or two once there’s a break in the weather and drop the cover/LU back down to close to 160kg. We are highly stocked so it’s important to get surplus off and growing back quickly. Pre-grazing yields are around 1,600kg/ha at the moment, hence why we are taking out a paddock or two and we are just getting grass quality back to where we would like. We will take out any poor quality paddocks as bales. Breeding is going well with 80% confirmed in-calf inside the first four weeks of breeding. Heifers fixed-time AI with a 63% conception rate.

Simon Breen

Emly, Co Tipperary

Grass quality is a challenge. It is a wet farm and the wet spring followed by the moisture deficit didn’t help. I plan to take advantage of the low stocking rate on the milking platform and take surplus bales out over the next few weeks, correcting grass quality before building covers for the autumn. Cows are milking well, producing 252kg MS/cow up to 1 July off 370kg of meal/cow. Pica has been an issue here so we feed Di-Calcium Phosphate (DCP) in the dairy nut. The auto-gate realise batch latch system is used here which we find really helps with lameness as cows make their own way in for milkings and are never rushed along roadways.

Barry Reilly

Teagasc Ballyhaise, Co Monaghan

We almost have all our grass quality issues sorted. There are still one or two more paddocks that have not got a blade so I’m running out of time to get them. However, with growth over 100kg/day I should get a chance soon.

There is surplus grass to be cut. We are waiting for two dry days, same as everyone else. Pre-grazing yields are currently at 1,300kg/ha. A lot of cows are scanned in-calf already. Breeding has slowed down a lot. Will continue to breed to the end of the month, which will be 12 weeks. Vasectomised bulls are working well.