Newford farm in Co Galway has witnessed an upturn in fortunes since the turn of the month. Grass growth rates for the first week of August ranged from almost 100kg DM/ha to 120kg DM/ha, while growth for the second week of the month ranged from 75kg DM/ha to 87kg DM/ha.

Farm manager Matthew Murphy estimates that growth in the last week will also have been close to this level as the spike in growth rates helped the farm to replenish fodder supplies.

There were 128 bales made from paddocks removed as surplus grass over the last 10 days, with the volume of silage harvested on par to that used to supplement the herd during drought conditions in July. Matthew expects that there will be another 100-plus bales harvested in the coming week, which should also put the farm back on track in meeting its winter fodder requirement.

The paddocks being removed for silage in the coming week are mainly in the Tuohy’s land block, which has the lowest grass demand of 20kg DM/ha, as detailed in Table 1.

The low demand is stemming from the block grazing 41 bullocks which are also being supplemented with 5kg concentrate daily.

The remaining 20 bullocks are grazing in the Gort naHabhainn land block along with another batch of 30 cows and their calves. These cows are all the first-calvers and 10 cows which are falling behind target body condition or carrying twins and will benefit from preferential grazing.

Once this week’s bales have been made, attention will turn to building autumn grass supplies. A bag of CAN will be blanket spread over the entire farm in the next week to continue to maximise grass growth rates.