Farmer Writes: going for a third cut of silage

We got one of our silage blocks reseeded last week, while everybody else seemed to be at Electric Picnic.

We got it sowed in excellent conditions and it got the usual treatment of subsoiling, 3,000 gallons/acre of slurry, two bags/acre of gran-lime and discing and power harrowing.

We put in 18kg/acre of a silage mix, made up of Aberclyde, Abermagic, Aberwolf, Barwave and white clover. It should take well and hopefully it will be dry enough in five to six weeks for the weed spray.

It wouldn’t be the driest ground so that could be an issue.

We also got the reseeded paddock at home grazed last week and we gave it another roll after grazing, to firm it up. The weed spray worked well and all docks and chickweed were killed. We also put soiled water on it after grazing and will aim to get a few more rounds of soiled water on it.

Cows are doing 22 litres at the moment with butterfat at 4.50% and protein 3.83%, while somatic cell count is staying under 100,000.

We need to start building covers now for the last round of grazing. Our average farm cover (AFC) is 680kg DM/ha. We will have a stocking rate of 3 LU/ha for the rest of the year, so we are slightly behind our target and could do with some rain to keep grass moving. If our next cover is not rising quick enough, I will go in with silage to get our AFC up to 1,000kg DM/ha for 1 September.

We are going for a third cut on one of the silage blocks and the heifers will be home this week to the other block. Both got 2,000 gallons/acre of slurry and three bags/acre of 19.0.15. This should keep a good bit of grass ahead of the heifers and make a nice few good quality bales.

We had a discussion group from Tipperary here a few weeks ago, it was great to have them and get their opinions and insights into different topics here.

I also had a meeting on one of the farms in my own discussion group last week and the main topic discussed at both meetings was protected urea.

The conclusion we got was that it seems to work better on heavier type soils than drier soils.

More popular

On Sunday we went to visit our friends Jan and Liam in Athboy, ahead of their open evening tomorrow, which we unfortunately can’t attend. They have a herd of pedigree Speckle Park cattle and while I notice more dairy cross Speckle Park around the country, it was nice to see a pedigree herd. They are becoming more and more popular as a beef alternative on dairy cows. They are lovely looking cows and they have some impressive young bulls. We hope their open evening is a great success.

My wife Klara sponged the ewes two weeks ago and the pedigree New Zealand Suffolk ram went in on Monday. Hopefully he will work well and we will have lambing done before calving starts next January.

One thing I did this week, as the farm is now fully in my name, is made my will. You don’t realise how important a job it is until you have to sit down and do it. You hear of family disputes over assets and that’s something I never want to happen here.

It is a simple task and it can make life easier on the people you leave behind. My wife and I were in and out within half an hour, job done.