The days are feeling cooler this week, with a marked reduction in air temperatures. According to forecasts, we should see a return to milder weather next week and an end to the northerly breeze.

Some farmers are reporting excellent growth rates this week in the 70-80kg DM/ha range after the heavy rainfall from last week and warm soils helped to drive on growth, especially in areas that were feeling the effects of drought. Others are finding growth rates are sluggish and are feeding meal and silage to help slow down cows and build covers.

With good growth rates and a stocking rate of 2.5-3 cows per hectare, you will start to see grass building up. There is still time to spread some CAN before 15 September to help ensure you get the maximum amount of grass growth. It is too early yet to be grazing heavy covers over 1,800kg DM/ha unless you are heavily stocked (over 3.5 cows/ha). If your stocking rate is now back under 2.5 cows/ha then you can build your average farm cover up to 1,000kg DM/ha (400kg/Lu) by 1 October. If you go higher than this, you will start to graze very high covers in October, which can slow growth over the winter. Those stocked over 2.5 cows/ha now will aim a little lower per cow and maybe reach 350-400kg of grass per cow by early October.

Our farmer in mid-Kerry has an average farm cover of 946kg DM/ha and a growth rate of 95kg DM/ha/day. His cover per cow is 344kg and the stocking rate is 2.75 Lu/ha. The milk solids per cow are 1.33kg. He planned to reseed two paddocks yesterday (Wednesday) and this will reduce his cover per cow.

In south Tipperary, our farmer has a growth rate of 75kg DM/ha/day and a demand of 60kg DM/ha/day. He was fortunate to get a lot of heavy rain and warm sunshine that really pushed on growth. His average farm cover is 797kg DM/ha and his cover per cow is 214kg. He is spreading a bag of Supernet (27:0:0:3.7). Cows are producing 18.16kg at 4.32% fat and 3.7% protein (1.46kg MS).

Our farmer in southwest Wexford has a growth rate of 70kg DM/ha and an average farm cover of 761kg DM/ha. He has cows on a new block and the main block is building a good bank of grass quickly with only heifers on it. His stocking rate is very low now and he sees no option but the baler to control all this grass next week. He is not used to this situation, but doesn’t want to end up with covers too high in the winter that will only die back. West Cork seems to be divided on grass growth. Our guy says he has been talking to people from Bandon/Barryroe and they’re feeding silage and ration. He can’t complain because he is getting regular light amounts of rain. No need to supplement at all yet. Cows are milking 19 kgs, fat 4.45% and protein 3.71% (1.55kg MS). He has all his bales made at this stage.

STEVEN FITZGERALD, farm manager, TEAGASC CURTIN’S RESEARCH FARM

Growth rates are back this week, probably as a result of the cooler temperatures we have been experiencing. According to our autumn grass budget, we have a target average farm cover of 640kg DM/ha for this week, but we are ahead of target with a cover of 792kg DM/ha.

Rotation length is at 25 days and will increase to 30 days by 1 September. We aim to have an average farm cover of 1,150kg DM/ha by 5 October. Cows are entering pre-grazing covers of 1,400kg DM/ha, 1,8000kg DM/ha and 1,500kg DM/ha. We don’t mind letting cows into the higher covers because they were mowed for second cut silage earlier and are of excellent quality. The ones that were not mowed we aim to graze at lower covers because quality might not be as good. To date, we have used up 210kg/ha of our nitrogen allocation, and will spread the remaining 40 units following cows in two rounds.

Preliminary scanning results were excellent, with a 10% empty rate. There are nine cows left to scan and whatever the result, it should not make much difference to the overall performance. Grass dry matter is set at 18% this week. Cows are milking 17.2 litres at 4.82% fat, 3.71% protein and 111 SCC. It is a quiet time of year and we are using this free time to improve health and safety around the farm and tidy sheds up.

Frank O’Brien, Garryricken, Windgap, Co Kilkenny

Growth rates are excellent here. We grew 73kg DM/ha this week and 90kg DM/ha last week. Growth rates had slowed down a little at the end of July, but it didn’t affect us as much as other people in the midlands. Our land lies over a sandstone base, which means it takes a long time to burn up in the summer and is slow to get wet.

Cows are entering pre-grazing covers of 1,550kg DM/ha. The average farm cover is 750kg DM/ha and cover per cow is 357kg. With a stocking rate of 2.2 Lu/ha, it will be easy to build up for the autumn. We have spread a bag of pasture sward across the whole farm and will spread another bag if needs be in September. I usually plan on leaving a cover of 500-520kg DM/ha on the grazing block, but I might let this increase a little because I plan to milk a lot more cows next spring. I am milking 99 cows this year, but plan on increasing to 145 next spring. In general, growth rates were excellent this year and consistent throughout the year, with 10.5t of grass grown so far. We made 250 extra bales of silage from strong paddocks. Cows are milking 18 litres at 4.76% fat and 3.87% protein (1.63kg MS). Quota will dictate our milking plans for the autumn, if price stays above 35cent we could afford to keep milking and if it goes below this we may start once a day milking or dry off cows.

Richard Starrett, Killendarragh, Lifford, Donegal

Cows are entering excellent quality pre-grazing covers of 1,000kg DM/ha. We have an average farm cover of 590kg DM/ha and cover per cow of 219kg. We are spreading a bag of CAN per acre after cows to help build up for the autumn. Some paddocks got watery slurry three weeks ago after being cut for silage and have nice covers now for grazing.

Our stocking rate is 2.7 Lu/ha, which is lower than usual because this year we started to lease 35 acres beside the main block. We reseeded the entire 35 acres this spring and have got four grazings out of it so far. Some of it was reseeded with Tyrella as part of the Teagasc Pasture Profit Index variety evaluation. We are planning on reseeding five and a half acres soon and will put in the Majestic variety.

The field was burned off and it will be ploughed and drains will be cleaned out. Growth rates took a hammering this week and are at 58kg DM/ha/day, while demand is at 46kg DM/ha/day. The north wind is reducing temperatures and affecting growth.

The 145 cows are milking 17.25litres at 4.2% fat, 3.71% protein and 150 SCC. We haven’t scanned the cows yet but heifers were scanned and the results were good with 37 out of 38 cows showed in-calf.

Brendan McGarry, Lusma,

Co Offaly

We have an average farm cover of 920kg DM/ha and covers are building well. We like to try and have higher covers because we have some lower ground that slows down a lot when temperatures drop. The heifers are on this lower ground now and will stay on it unless September turns out bad.

Cows were entering pre-grazing covers of 1,550kg DM/ha, but this is dropping back to 1,450kg DM/ha. Our stocking rate is high this year at 3.2 Lu/ha. This is because we held on to more heifers this year. During the summer, stocking rate was as high as 4.3 Lu/ha when silage was taken out of the rotation.

Breeding lasted for 13 weeks, starting on 7 May and ending 6 August. We plan to scan cows in early September. We got enough silage made for the winter, but it will probably be all needed. We didn’t cut any surplus paddocks from the grazing block because it was all needed.

To maintain quality, we pre-mowed paddocks at 4cm cutting height. Cows are milking well, producing 21 litres at 4.26% fat, 3.58% protein (1.69kg MS) and 149 SCC. To date cows produced 0.86% more fat than last year and produced 0.01% less protein. I am a little disappointed with the protein result because I breed cows for more protein and expect an increase every year.