We had a decent few hours of heavy rain in Clara at last this week after the showers over the last few weeks had managed to avoid us for the most part.

Growth had dropped to a disappointing 25kg DM/ha at the last measurement and we had started to eat into the grass that had been built up on the farm for the autumn rotation. Hopefully this 12mm of rain will kick growth on again and we can build grass covers back up to extend grazing right out into the autumn without too much supplementary feeding. The farm is turning green again already.

Grass cover stood at 1,270kg DM/ha on 20 September but had reduced to 1,080kg by 30 September. We need to get a couple of weeks at a growth rate of 50kg or higher to build back up to our target of 1,250kg for this time of year. We will start to close up paddocks this week for spring grazing. It’s a critical time for grass management, so this area of the farm business will get monitored closely over the coming weeks.

The farm has grown just over 10t of grass DM so far this year and should finish up somewhere between 11t and 12t. Moisture or rain was the limiting factor for the second half of the year and has been consistently restricting growth rates for the last few years.

We will soil sample a few more paddocks this autumn to monitor soil fertility and pH but the main message from the last few years of data is that the farm is probably never going to carry a high stocking rate without importing a large amount of forage or concentrates to supplement grass grown. If we want to expand, we will have to bring in more ground rather than pushing the stocking rate much higher.

We ensiled a pit of maize silage just before the rain started and it looks to be some of the best-quality maize we’ve had on the farm. This was bought to increase winter forage stocks on the farm and as an insurance against a higher stocking rate next spring. If we could have made a second cut of silage, it wouldn’t have been needed as much but we never ran into a significant surplus of grass for the second half of the year.

If this maize tests high enough, it should reduce the need for concentrates in the milking cow diet next spring and it should also reduce the concentrate bill for the bulls over the winter. The main reason for the maize though is to fill a gap in the grass grown on the farm and ensure there is enough feed on hand for the spring. Another tonne of growth per hectare across the farm would have done the same job.

While it mightn’t have been a vintage grass growing year on the farm in terms of quantity, the grass that was grown and grazed was excellent quality. The cows have milked well all year and youngstock have thrived very well. The in-calf heifers will be weighed at housing but look exceptional in the field. Fertility has been excellent, and the silage in the pit should test well, so no complaints overall.

No complaints on the hurling front either this year, with our hurling pensioners rolling back the years again with the help of a few youngsters. King Henry stands alone on top of a very congested leaderboard on the all-time medal list.