The weather has changed for the better this week. Many people are taking their chance now to cut silage while the showers stay away. Contractors are getting booked up for the weekend, with the main problem being that everyone will want to cut at the same time.

The weather has been very tricky over the past week, with bursts of growth and bursts of rain. The dry weather will be very welcome on wetter farms where cows had to be housed last week.

Many farmers are reporting cows entering high pre-grazing yields of 1,600kg/ha and milk yield taking a slump as a result. Some farmers are pre-cutting paddocks before cows enter them instead of topping when they come out.

Growth rates are still holding strong and with the sunshine and higher temperatures this week, farmers should be able to afford to skip surpluses and get them baled for silage.

Weather conditions are tricky at the moment, but you should aim for quality when making silage rather than yield. Every week you delay harvest, 3% digestibility is being lost. A dead butt segment in silage has the same feeding value as straw and this situation should be avoided. Try to book your contractor early and keep a close eye on the weather. Making good-quality silage now will save you in the long run. Every drop in DMD unit means the need to feed an extra 1kg of meal during the winter.

Southwest Wexford is mowing silage today. His average farm cover is 747kg/ha, cover per cow is 186kg and grass growth is 67kg. The tail end of last week saw a slowdown in growth rates but it is improving again. Cows are milking 26.5kg at 4.04% Fat and 3.54% Protein.

A lot of cows are repeating, even though cows are in good order and well fed. At present it is looking like a 50% return rate, which is very unusual for a normally fertile herd.

Mid-Kerry has an average farm cover of 965kg/ha. Grass growth is 60.9kg and demand is 70.3. His stocking rate is 4.69LU/ha and his cover per cow is 205kg/ha. Milk solids are 2.06kg. He is spreading 40 units of Nitrogen after cows.

West Clare has a growth rate of 52kg and a cover per cow of 228kg. He got a total of 19mm of rain this week but says conditions are improving. He is avoiding topping by taking out surpluses for silage or pre-mowing paddocks. Cows are milking 25 litres at 4.06% Fat and 3.36% Protein (3kg MS)

Our man in south Tipp has a growth rate of 75kg/ha and a demand of 78kg/ha. He has a stocking rate of 4.60 Lu/ha. He cut 1.6 hectares for silage on Friday evening and baled Saturday evening just as a downpour arrived.

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

We cut 30% of the silage Monday. Conditions weren’t ideal, but we were keen to get more ground back in the grazing rotation.

We got all day Tuesday to wilt it and baled it Tuesday evening. Wilting will seriously aid grass dry matter percentage. It yielded 12 bales to the acre and bales were weighing 920kg. Weather permitting, we plan on cutting the rest at the weekend and judging by the current yield, we will have 950kg of silage per cow for the winter.

Grass growth is at 81kg and farm demand is 75kg. Cows are entering ideal covers of 1,300kg/ha and rotation length is 18 to 19 days. We are feeding 2kg concentrates and cows are milking 22.8 litres at 4.44% Fat, 3.49% Protein with SCC 142,000 cells/ml. To date, we have spread 160kg of Nitrogen. We will now follow cows with 20 units of Sulfacan and watery slurry. After over four weeks of breeding, we had 100% submission rate. Repeats were quiet last week, and we are estimating 30% coming back for serving.

DONAL PATTON, FARM MANAGER, BALLYHAISE RESEARCH FARM

We have started cutting silage here in Ballyhaise today (Wednesday). 35% of the grazing platform was closed for silage and only half of that was ready for cutting. We will put this half in the pit and cut the rest will be left to bulk up for ten days. We are happy to get this silage ground back in the grazing rotation because stocking rate is high at 4.8Lu/ha.

Growth is back this week at 70kg/day and we are just meeting demand. We got 12mm of rain Monday and plenty of rain last week. Cows yield was back to 24 litres at 4.25% Fat, 3.4% Protein, (1.84kg Ms/cow) SCC 163.

The drop in yield can be attributed to cows entering high covers and not utilising them well because of all the rain.

Grazing has been very tricky over the past few days. Cows are grazing down to 4.2cm on average. Ground conditions were poor at the weekend and the residual was above target as a result. We are using a 12hr strip wire during wet spells to improve utilisation.

Soil temperature today is 12°c and total rainfall for the past seven days is 29mm. We are feeding 1kg of meal and depending on growth this week it might have to be increased. We had a 90% submission rate for three weeks and will be starting into the repeats in the next few weeks.

Conor Creedon, Rathmore, Co Kerry

We cut silage last Sunday and picked it up on Monday. It was a heavy crop and I was happy to get it into the pit. It started raining as we were bringing in the last few loads. Weather has been difficult for harvesting silage. We will spread the remaining slurry on the silage fields tomorrow (Thursday).

Growth is at 63kg/day here and cows are entering covers of 1,300-1,400kg/ha. The rotation length is at 21 days at the moment. We were going to cut a paddock that had got strong but decided that with all the rain to go into it, milk suffered as a result.

We brought home the bulling heifers as well, which pushed up the stocking rate on the grazing platform. This is another reason we didn’t cut. Cows are getting 0.4kg of meal just to get them into the parlour. They are milking 22.5 litres at 4.03% Fat and 3.69% Protein. I am following cows with 36 units of SulphaCan. This is usually done twice a week. This will keep grass moving for the next few weeks. We have a 95% submission rate, and will get the vet out to the remaining cows to see what is wrong and why they are not cycling.

Hughie Egan, Straduff, Ballinahown, Co Offally

Grass growth is strong at 90kg/ha. We have a farm cover of 853kg/ha and a stocking rate of 4.35LU/ha. We took out some heavy covers two weeks ago during the good spell and have another 3.5 hectares earmarked for silage.

Cows are entering paddocks with covers of 1,600kg/ha. We would prefer cows to be entering covers of 1,300kg/ha. We will start pre-mowing some heavy covers. I prefer to pre-mow rather than top because I feel topping holds back growth.

Grass has been difficult to manage over the past few weeks with some big bursts of growth and very heavy showers.

I am feeding 2kg of meal, mainly to keep cows in good condition for breeding and to get Calmag into them. Cows are milking 22 litres at 3.28% Protein, 3.76% Fat and SCC 174, yield and solids are back this week because of heavy showers and some soiling of heavy covers. We got some cows paired yesterday (Tuesday) I have started feeding straw to cows at the feedspace as they come out from milking to ensure plenty of fibre in their diet. We finished three weeks of breeding today (Wednesday) and had a 98% submission rate.

I am very happy with this because the background of our herd is predominantly Holstein. We got the vet to coil six cows and five of those have cycled since.