Grass+: prolonged wilting will result in lower DMD values

The heat over the last few days has grass growth up again this week, with the average growth rate at 83kg DM/ha.

With warm temperatures set to continue over the next week along with showers in-between, grass growth can only be expected to increase.

Close off any paddocks that are above 1,800kg DM/ha and take out as surplus bales in the coming week. These paddocks may not provide bulk quantities of silage, but what they will provide is high-quality silage that will come in handy for feeding finishing stock later in the year.

The current good weather window may offer an opportunity to get the first cut of silage taken.

Cutting date is the most important factor in making quality silage and for each week delay, there will be a three-unit drop in DMD percentage at feeding time.

Silage DMD is the percentage of dry matter that is actually digested by the animal. The higher the DMD, the higher the performance your animals will achieve.

If crop lodging occurs when grass gets flattened due to heavy rain, this can result in a nine-unit drop in DMD for every week that harvest is delayed.

Walk the fields

Silage fields should be walked on a regular basis at this time of year and you should look out for the presence of seed heads and dead material at the base of the crop.

Aim for a short fast wilt of 24 to 36 hours. Prolonged wilting will result in lower DMD values.

Grass can be tested before cutting. This can be done by cutting a grass sample from the field, extracting the juice and using a refractometer to determine sugar content.

The target sugar content of a silage crop should be in excess of 3%. Grass sugars are converted to acid during the fermentation process and this acid will aid the preservation process of the silage.

Co Cavan

System: suckler to weanling/finish

Soil type: heavy clay

Farm cover (kg DM/ha): 646

Demand (kg DM/ha/day): 25

Growth (kg DM/ha/day): 88

Growth has remained strong over the past few weeks and, as a result, I have managed to take out a few surplus bales from paddocks. I have a few more paddocks that are starting to get strong. I will leave them for 10 more days to allow them to bulk up. I got my first-cut silage in last week. The yield was lower than last year but it is still of good quality. I will be hoping to take a big second cut this year to build up fodder reserves after the extended winter. Paddocks that I am holding for second cut will get 2,000 gallons of slurry and three bags of nitrogen per acre. This year I decided to use 100% AI on the farm. Breeding started on 20 April and so far I have all my cows served. This week I slaughtered the first group of my spring 2017-born bulls under 16 months and I am very happy with how they went. The remaining bulls will be slaughtered in three weeks.

Co Limerick

System: suckler to weanling

Soil type: highly variable

Farm cover (kg DM/ha): 784

Demand (kg DM/ha/day): 30

Growth (kg DM/ha): 77

I have 34 acres of first-cut silage. I spread this with 100 units of urea/acre seven weeks ago. In the last two weeks, there has been good growth, with the crop bulking up nicely, and I plan to cut this for pit silage over the weekend. Once the silage is cut, I will use the same 34 acres to take my second cut of silage to try to build up the silage reserves, which will definitely be needed this winter. I will spread this ground with a mixture of pig and cattle slurry and 100 units of urea/acre. To build reserves even further, as soon as paddocks go strong I will take them out as surplus bales. I have sunk a new well, and added more water troughs and extra paddocks. This will allow me to streamline my work, making it much easier for grassland management. Each paddock will be grazed for two days. I have bought in 37 dairy-bred calves. I was feeding these once a day, but they will all be weaned in the next two weeks.

Co Roscommon

System: suckler to weanling/beef

Soil type: free-draining loam

Farm cover (kg DM/ha): 681

Demand (kg DM/ha/day): 39

Growth (kg DM/ha): 61

To-date, one paddock has been taken out as surplus and I’ve earmarked two more on an outfarm. I’m slightly under-stocked on this block but, given the spring we had, it will give me a chance to rebuild fodder stocks. Breeding is well under way with three groups and I’m slowly building numbers. It is slower breeding from within the herd as opposed to buying in replacements but I’m happy with the quality of the heifers coming through. All heifers are high on the replacement index and there is milk in their bloodlines. These heifers are running with an easy-calving Saler bull.

I plan to cut my first cut silage next week. Most ground will be closed again for second cut. The first of my under-16-month bulls go to the factory on Friday. It will be interesting to see how they grade. Weight and conformation won’t be an issue; it’s more fat score I’m cautious about.

Newford Herd

System: suckler to beef

Soil type: mixed

Farm cover (kg DM/ha): 598

Demand (kg DM/ha/day): 59

Growth (kg DM/ha/day): 66

Newford Farm has 100 cows for breeding this year. As of Friday 24 May, 98 cows had been inseminated. In the first three weeks of breeding, post 23 April, 90% of the herd was submitted.

There have been seven repeats as of Friday. We got a vet to check the two cows which had not cycled – one was treated for a cystic ovary and came into heat a few days later and the other required a PRID to encourage normal cyclicity. We are inseminating cows once daily, at midday. Our replacement heifers are being reared on contract in Tuam and 84% of these (21/25) had been bred in the first three weeks, with four repeats. The batch of young calves were coughing last week and two of them were treated for pneumonia. Faecal samples were taken and sent for analysis.

Six acres of surplus grass was cut and baled last week, yielding 21 bales working out at 3.5 bales per acre. Cows are being followed with 1 bag of CAN sulphur after each grazing.