As is their nature, the thunderstorms of last Friday evening were hit and miss. For those who missed the rain, the consequences are that grass growth is declining as ground hardens and soil moisture deficits become real.

For the majority that got the rain, some too much, it means that growth will power on for this week anyway. The weather is set to change by the weekend with milder, more typical weather forecast.

Measuring grass every five or six days is critical at the moment. Growth is variable, and can go from 100kg/day to less than 60kg/day in the space of a few days. If demand is set at 80kg/day, then average farm cover will drop fast if you’re not monitoring it enough.

The target average farm cover at the moment is between 180 and 200kg/cow. Higher stocked and dry farms should be at the upper end of the target. Lower average farm cover targets were OK last month, but for free-draining farms I’d be erring on the side of having grass now.

That’s not to say that farmers can get lax about taking out surplus grass. The target is the target - it just means that cover shouldn’t drop below 180 or 200kg/cow after taking out a paddock.

Breeding

On the breeding side of the house, most farmers are between four and six weeks into the breeding season. At a discussion group meeting I was at last week there was a lot of chatter about non-return rates. Non-return rates are the percentage of cows bred in the first three weeks that did not return to heat in the following three weeks. It is only calculated on cows bred in the first three weeks, not all cows.

It is not the same as conception rates. Conception rate is what is in-calf from first service. Non-return rates are usually 5 to 10% higher than actual conception rates. You won’t know conception rates until cows are scanned or, failing that, next February when cows start calving.

In my view, non-return rates are a poor measure of breeding performance. The optimum measure is six-week calving rate. Strive to achieve a high six-week in-calf rate by serving all cows showing signs of heat. So putting the effort into heat detecting will give a better return than calculating non-return rates.

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First-cut silage clamped in Kilkenny