Although most areas experienced dry periods over the weekend and last Monday, heavy rain on Tuesday put most ground conditions back to square one. Farmers on dry ground took the opportunity to spread some slurry on dry fields with low covers, while others took the opportunity to apply a half a bag of urea per acre.
Despite some limited activity in the fields, the ability of most farmers to graze off some of the heavy covers, or to apply slurry or fertiliser, continues to be very limited. With many farmers facing a situation of heavy farm covers and a delayed turnout, the increasing challenge will be getting covers grazed off early enough in the first rotation to allow adequate time for regrowth to the start of the second rotation. This will require a little tweaking of the spring rotation planner. Aiming at grazing light covers first will speed up the start of the rotation, allowing these areas time to re-grow. Once there is about one-third of lower covers grazed off and fertilised, farmers can then change to grazing out heavier covers.
While this might work well in theory, several issues will affect this, including ground conditions. If the driest ground has heavy covers, then this may be the only area possible to graze in the coming weeks. Another growing issue is slurry. Where ground will be grazed again, only watery slurry should be applied after grazing and where the ground will not be grazed again for 30+ days.
Little grazing taking place on most farmsSpring rotation planners being re-visited to adjust for later turnout datesChemical fertiliser being applied to dry ground where possibleSlurry should only be applied to low grass covers.Tomas Murphy
Co Laois
Farming system Suckler to beef
Land type Dry
Similar to other farms across the country, we have great covers of grass on our farm here in Laois after the mild winter. However, the wet weather is making it difficult to get stock out this month.
I will walk the farm again over the weekend and take an opening farm cover to assess the amount of grass available. There are high covers in some paddocks of around 1,300kg DM/ha (8.5-9cm) in some paddocks and they will need dry weather to graze them out.
I haven’t spread any slurry on the farm yet as we are still OK for storage and I want to get some paddocks grazed off to spread it on. We had a lot of rain on Tuesday night and last weekend so I delayed turning any stock out.
I am aiming to spread fertiliser on the home farm in the next week or so if the rainfall eases. I will spread half a bag of urea per acre to help kick start growth so I will have enough grass in April.
Matthew Murphy
Newford Farm, Galway
Farming system Suckler to beef
Land type Dry
Average farm cover (kg DM/ha) 980
Calving started in Newford this week, with eight calved since Sunday. Everything so far is good, with cows calving down with good milk and calves seem to be healthy and lively to suck. We have a large loose straw bedded shed and this is kept topped up with 12 to 15 cows all the time. Cows move to individual pens for two to three days to mother up.
We walked the farm last week and our average farm cover is 980kg DM/ha. We closed at 632kg DM/ha on 9 November, so this meant our paddocks grew on average 3.79 kg DM/ha over the winter months. Much of this growth occurred in November. We have 15 paddocks with covers over 1,000kg DM/ha. The plan was to graze these first but with poor weather conditions and ground conditions poor we may opt to graze some lighter covers first to get them going and it will also gave us some paddocks for slurry application. It will also speed up our spring rotation planner targets as we will graze these lighter covers faster. As soon as conditions allow, we will spread ½ bag urea/acre over about ½ of the farm.
David Walsh
Co Tipperary
Farming system Suckler to store/beef
Land type Dry
A small number of weanlings have been turned out to alleviate pressure on sheds with cows calving, but all other stock is housed. In all, I have 30 cows calved out of 58 in the past two weeks. I spread 23 units of urea per acre on my driest land last week. Some of this land had heavy covers but I believe this land is starved of nitrogen.
In all, I covered almost 20 acres and luckily weather was reasonably dry for the two days following spreading.
Slurry is becoming a problem for me. While I managed to spread a small amount in mid-January to alleviate pressure, I am nearly full now again. I have quite a number of heavy covers of grass also, so finding suitable land to spread slurry is going to prove difficult.
My average cover is higher than normal at about 1,200kg DM/ha. While this is a welcome boost to the start of the year, it will be all needed as my stocking rate will increase to over 2.7 LU/ha for the first time this year.
Chris McCarthy
Co Westmeath
Farming system Suckler to weanling
Land type Dry
The wet weather has delayed turnout on the farm. There are heavy covers on the farm, making it difficult to get out with slurry. If there were a few dry days, things would turn around fast, allowing me to get slurry spread and get some stock out.
I have fertiliser bought and waiting to go once conditions improve. I am planning to apply about 23 units of N/acre to get grass moving.
I had stock out by this time every year for the last three years. I have a group of weanling heifers which are priority to turn out first and will turn them out to heavy covers once ground conditions allow.
They performed on target, growing by 0.6kg/head/day over the winter, which I am pleased with. So far, I have 20 cows calved and all is going well. Hopefully stock will start to be turned out within 10 days.
Although most areas experienced dry periods over the weekend and last Monday, heavy rain on Tuesday put most ground conditions back to square one. Farmers on dry ground took the opportunity to spread some slurry on dry fields with low covers, while others took the opportunity to apply a half a bag of urea per acre.
Despite some limited activity in the fields, the ability of most farmers to graze off some of the heavy covers, or to apply slurry or fertiliser, continues to be very limited. With many farmers facing a situation of heavy farm covers and a delayed turnout, the increasing challenge will be getting covers grazed off early enough in the first rotation to allow adequate time for regrowth to the start of the second rotation. This will require a little tweaking of the spring rotation planner. Aiming at grazing light covers first will speed up the start of the rotation, allowing these areas time to re-grow. Once there is about one-third of lower covers grazed off and fertilised, farmers can then change to grazing out heavier covers.
While this might work well in theory, several issues will affect this, including ground conditions. If the driest ground has heavy covers, then this may be the only area possible to graze in the coming weeks. Another growing issue is slurry. Where ground will be grazed again, only watery slurry should be applied after grazing and where the ground will not be grazed again for 30+ days.
Little grazing taking place on most farmsSpring rotation planners being re-visited to adjust for later turnout datesChemical fertiliser being applied to dry ground where possibleSlurry should only be applied to low grass covers.Tomas Murphy
Co Laois
Farming system Suckler to beef
Land type Dry
Similar to other farms across the country, we have great covers of grass on our farm here in Laois after the mild winter. However, the wet weather is making it difficult to get stock out this month.
I will walk the farm again over the weekend and take an opening farm cover to assess the amount of grass available. There are high covers in some paddocks of around 1,300kg DM/ha (8.5-9cm) in some paddocks and they will need dry weather to graze them out.
I haven’t spread any slurry on the farm yet as we are still OK for storage and I want to get some paddocks grazed off to spread it on. We had a lot of rain on Tuesday night and last weekend so I delayed turning any stock out.
I am aiming to spread fertiliser on the home farm in the next week or so if the rainfall eases. I will spread half a bag of urea per acre to help kick start growth so I will have enough grass in April.
Matthew Murphy
Newford Farm, Galway
Farming system Suckler to beef
Land type Dry
Average farm cover (kg DM/ha) 980
Calving started in Newford this week, with eight calved since Sunday. Everything so far is good, with cows calving down with good milk and calves seem to be healthy and lively to suck. We have a large loose straw bedded shed and this is kept topped up with 12 to 15 cows all the time. Cows move to individual pens for two to three days to mother up.
We walked the farm last week and our average farm cover is 980kg DM/ha. We closed at 632kg DM/ha on 9 November, so this meant our paddocks grew on average 3.79 kg DM/ha over the winter months. Much of this growth occurred in November. We have 15 paddocks with covers over 1,000kg DM/ha. The plan was to graze these first but with poor weather conditions and ground conditions poor we may opt to graze some lighter covers first to get them going and it will also gave us some paddocks for slurry application. It will also speed up our spring rotation planner targets as we will graze these lighter covers faster. As soon as conditions allow, we will spread ½ bag urea/acre over about ½ of the farm.
David Walsh
Co Tipperary
Farming system Suckler to store/beef
Land type Dry
A small number of weanlings have been turned out to alleviate pressure on sheds with cows calving, but all other stock is housed. In all, I have 30 cows calved out of 58 in the past two weeks. I spread 23 units of urea per acre on my driest land last week. Some of this land had heavy covers but I believe this land is starved of nitrogen.
In all, I covered almost 20 acres and luckily weather was reasonably dry for the two days following spreading.
Slurry is becoming a problem for me. While I managed to spread a small amount in mid-January to alleviate pressure, I am nearly full now again. I have quite a number of heavy covers of grass also, so finding suitable land to spread slurry is going to prove difficult.
My average cover is higher than normal at about 1,200kg DM/ha. While this is a welcome boost to the start of the year, it will be all needed as my stocking rate will increase to over 2.7 LU/ha for the first time this year.
Chris McCarthy
Co Westmeath
Farming system Suckler to weanling
Land type Dry
The wet weather has delayed turnout on the farm. There are heavy covers on the farm, making it difficult to get out with slurry. If there were a few dry days, things would turn around fast, allowing me to get slurry spread and get some stock out.
I have fertiliser bought and waiting to go once conditions improve. I am planning to apply about 23 units of N/acre to get grass moving.
I had stock out by this time every year for the last three years. I have a group of weanling heifers which are priority to turn out first and will turn them out to heavy covers once ground conditions allow.
They performed on target, growing by 0.6kg/head/day over the winter, which I am pleased with. So far, I have 20 cows calved and all is going well. Hopefully stock will start to be turned out within 10 days.
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