Our measuring beef farms have grown 25kg DM/ha/day since last week. While last week was a good opportunity for most to get grazing, the weekend soured things and the beginning of the week has not been much better, with heavy rain and snow in places.

Only those on the driest farms are still grazing at full steam. The challenge of getting silage ground grazed, closed and fertilised early enough to allow for a high-quality crop remains, with the targeted 20 May cutting date slipping for some.

Many farmers will be looking to the coming days and weekend for a big turnout of stock as above-average growth rates have caused farms to green up nicely. The grass is there; now the conditions to eat it are needed.

Thankfully, save for showers in the eastern part of the country today, the current forecast is dry into next week for the whole island. Use the dry conditions to eat grass down tight. Fields with yellow material at the base of swards are your cow fields. Young stock will turn up their noses at this and go walking. This, combined with nitrogen fertiliser, will ensure quality the next time round.

Even farms stocked as low as 1.5 LU/ha with a decent grass supply should be getting 23 units of N/acre in March. We need to set the farm up for the grass growing year. The benefits of this fertiliser will be felt in the second rotation.

Take the opportunity to assess the farm’s grass supply when things are dry this weekend. Estimate your paddock areas and how many cm of grass are in each paddock. Subtract four – (cm) the post-grazing residual – and multiply the remainder by 250kg to get a cover in kg of dry matter per hectare. Multiply this by the paddock area in hectares to get the kg of grass in the paddock.

A suckler cow and calf will need around 15kg of grass daily, a 400kg animal 8kg and a 500kg animal 10kg. Work out your herd’s total demand of grass daily and divide it into the total grass supply to get a days ahead figure. As we move into what is traditionally an excellent growing period, the target should be around 16-18 grazing days this week, dropping to 12-14 in April.

Kieran Noonan

Charleville, Co Cork

System: suckler to weanling

Soil type: heavy

Average farm cover: 563kg DM/ha

Growth rate: 15kg DM/ha/day

I got fertiliser (urea) out last week where I could at a rate of 30 units/acre. I had planned to use a quad bike given the heavy nature of my land, but that didn’t materialise. Instead I used my own tractor and while the ground is marked in some places, I avoided the wettest spots. In all, I spread around 25 acres. I had gotten slurry out the previous week on six acres too.

Last weekend was miserable here and the autumn-born calves that I was letting creep out to grass have been locked in since last Friday. Ground is seriously sticky at present. In order to help cow condition, calves are only getting in for one suck daily. I finished my breeding season yesterday. It was a long one, having begun on 20 October.

However, I am running a number of pedigree animals here and they calve earlier than the commercials by design. That said, I can and will work to tighten it up during the BETTER programme.

Dwayne Stanley

Thurles, Co Tipperary

System: suckler to steer/calf to beef

Soil type: mixed

Average farm cover: 469kg DM/ha

Growth rate: 3kg DM/ha/day

All was going well before Tuesday night, autumn-calving cows and their calves were out full-time, grazing silage ground with light yearlings. One-and-a-half inches of snow later and we were forced to rehouse the cows and calves. We are thinking of keeping out the light yearlings on the silage ground. We were strip grazing it with a view to closing up on 1 April.

One of the early lessons we’ve learned as BETTER farm participants is that we’re not making good enough silage for an autumn-calving herd. After this year’s breeding, a small number of cows returned empty having been under too much nutritional pressure. These will join the cull group. Our cull cows are currently on a silage-only diet. The well-conditioned ones will go for slaughter out of the shed and the leaner ones will go to grass with a view to a midsummer finish.

Spring calving is progressing well, with 29 calved and 30 to go. There has been just one loss so far.

Tom Halpin

Kells, Co Meath

System: suckler to bull beef

Soil type: free draining

Average farm cover: 282kg DM/ha

Growth rate: 15kg DM/ha/day

We got heavy rain here on Tuesday night but were able to keep stock out. We have spring and summer calvers here and 24 of the 55-strong spring-calving herd are out at the moment with their calves. Older cows are getting 1kg of meal with a mineral and heifers are getting 2kg.

I went with 35 units of N/acre (urea) in early March and I’m seeing a good response. We’re actually motoring through the farm quite well in terms of area grazed, with around half got through so far. However, I went into the lighter covers first with yearlings and now I need the weather to tackle the heavier covers with cows. I should be finished the first rotation, including silage ground, by mid-April.

I’m planning on a mass turnout of stock this weekend. Again, I need the weather. Summer-born calves have been weaned a month at this stage and are earmarked for turnout. At this point it’ll be a fortnight later than I’d like.

Garreth McCormack

Bailieborough, Co Cavan

System: suckler to weanling

Soil type: heavy clay

Average farm cover: n/a

Growth rate: n/a

We were lucky on Tuesday night. It froze at around 8pm and there was very little rain subsequently. I have 14 heifers grazing silage ground at the moment. They went out on 15 February, lasted three weeks and came back in for two weeks when the weather turned. They’re back almost a fortnight at this stage. When ground conditions were very bad, I was moving them every 12 hours, keeping area allocations small. Last week, when things were dry, they were getting one day worth of grass at a time. I plan to let spring-calved cows out with them tomorrow.

I’m not achieving brilliant residuals with the heifers but the cows are more experienced grazers and should help this.

Calving is progressing well. I have 31 calved out of 36, with just a single loss. I have a lot of Saler genetics here and use bulls like Ulsan, Doudou and Lataster Ivan. The whole farm got a half bag of urea last Wednesday in what was my first spread of any sort.

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Grass+ dairy: a wet week but better weather on the way