Not much has changed in a week, or indeed in the last four weeks. Soil and air temperatures remain between 1°C and 2.5°C lower than normal. There is no softness and grass growth remains well below normal at 6kg/day, when it is normally 23kg/day.

On the positive side, there is good drying since Monday but more rain is set to move in on Thursday and over the weekend.

When to start the second round depends on how much grass is back on the first grazed paddock. If there is a cover of 500kg on it now and if it is going to grow an optimistic 20kg/day over the next 10 days then there will only be a cover of 700kg on it by 3 April – not enough. So the start of the second round must be delayed until there is going to be at least 1,000kg back on the first paddocks. At the moment, it’s looking like this won’t be until 10 or 12 April.

The other important consideration is average farm cover. Data from Pasturebase has shown that farms that let average farm cover drop below 500kg/ha at this time of year grow about 30% less grass over the next month or six weeks. Forget about percentage grazed – it’s irrelevant at this stage.

Not everyone is in trouble. Farmers who got very little grazed in February, but who closed at a high cover, can afford to drive on and get through grass now. It will probably take a month to get through the farm, by which time growth rate will have surely improved.

Get high covers grazed off first. It is not too cold for fertiliser. Farmers who have nothing spread to date need to go with 40 or 50 units as soon as possible.

  • Average grass growth rates are well below normal at 6kg/day which means heavy supplementation is necessary.
  • The start of the second round needs to be delayed until 10 to 15 April or until there is at least 1,000kg/ha on first grazed paddock.
  • Don’t let average farm cover drop below 500kg/ha or subsequent growth rate will suffer.
  • Brendan Horan

    Teagasc Curtins Farm, Cork

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9

    Growth rate (kg/day) 5

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 516

    Yield (l/cow/day) 23

    Fat % 4.73

    Protein % 3.25

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 2.08

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4m5s

    We had a lot of rain and snow over the weekend, which meant the herd had to be housed for periods. We were back out full-time for a few days but are only out by day now as we need to conserve grass.

    We are going to delay the start of the second round until 14 April. We have 70% of the farm grazed and we are allocating 140sq m per cow per day. They are getting about 6kg of grass.

    The silage quality is good and production is holding up well.

    Andrew Cronin

    Mallow, Co Cork

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9

    Growth rate (kg/day) 10

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 659

    Yield (l/cow/day) 18

    Fat % 4.56

    Protein % 3.38

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.5

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5m 5s

    We grazed 33% of the farm in February and have 47% grazed at the moment so we have the handbrake pulled up. Cows are on 5kg of meal, grass and silage and they’ll stay on that for a while. I pulled out any thin cows and put them in a separate group and I’ll probably put the thinnest of them onto once a day milking to hold body condition score. These cows are in by day, and the others are in by night. I spread half the farm with two bags/acre of 18:6:12 last week but I think I’ll finish it with a bag of urea and go back to 18:6:12 next month.

    Aiden Cunningham

    Cantwellscourt, Co Kilkenny

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) -

    Growth rate (kg/day) 5

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 500

    Yield (l/cow/day) 15

    Fat % 4.76

    Protein % 3.36

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.3

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 5m 10s

    We were out grazing day and night in February and have 50% grazed now but regrowth has been very slow. The weather is very difficult at the moment. There is a cover of about 350kg on the first grazed paddock. Cows have been inside since last Tuesday’s heavy rain to slow them up and preserve average farm cover as I don’t want it to fall any further. We got no chance to spread fertiliser yet but should have it out next week. It’s been a tough spring but the end is in sight and hopefully we’ll be back to normal soon.

    Barry Reilly

    Teagasc Ballyhaise, Co Cavan

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9

    Growth rate (kg/day) 12

    Average farm cover (kg/ha) 635

    Yield (l/cow/day) 19

    Fat % 5.23

    Protein % 3.29

    Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.66

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3

    The whole herd was indoors for the weekend as snow showers and heavy rain made grazing impossible. We’re back out now again with the main herd. We have 40% of the farm grazed and 77% of the herd calved. The current trial is looking at turnout dates. The figures above are for the early turnout group, but the milk figures are from the bulk tank, and half the cows are inside because of the trial they are on. We spread 2,000gl/acre of slurry on some paddocks and a bag of urea/acre this week. The last few days have been dry and we got some of the wetter sections grazed.

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    Dry days welcome as spring looms