Ground conditions across the country have deteriorated greatly over the last few days and with it, so too will thrive from grazed grass alone.

In a prolonged period of wet weather, grass dry matter can decrease from 18% to 19% to as low as 10% to 11%. This is will lead to a huge drop in energy intake of animals at grass.

Meal

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Every mouthful of grass will have between 40% and 50% less feeding in it compared with dry conditions.

This hit can be tolerated over a short period of time, but if there is no sign in weather and ground conditions improving, it could well be time to reintroduce meal to this year’s calves.

Remember, dairy beef calves should be hitting 230kg to 240kg on 1 November, so there is no time for underperformance.

Feeding 1kg to 1.5kg of meal now will greatly improve daily liveweight gain over the coming weeks at grass.

Energy top-up

There is just under 10 weeks to 1 November, so feeding 1kg to 1.5kg of meal from now to housing is going to cost €20 to €25/head.

We don’t want to offer too much meal to calves either. All we are trying to do is to top up the energy of the diet that has been lost due to poor weather.

Protein levels in the grass will be sufficient. Avoid using a creep feeder if possible, as what happens here is that some calves will be eating 3kg to 4kg/day – more than doubling feed costs, which is uneconomical.

Keep grass quality ahead of calves good at all times. Ideally, they should be getting a move every two to three days.

If there was a lower priority group of stock on farm, they should be used to follow the calves to clean out paddocks.

See this week's Irish Farmers Journal, where we look at meal feeding options for finishing dairy-beef cattle off grass this autumn.