Most of the country is benefitting from really good growth rates brought about by heat, moisture and sunshine. Many of our Grass+ farmers are achieving growth rates in the 90s – which is super for this time of year.

However, it’s a different story on some drier farms in the east, particularly around parts of Wexford and Carlow, which have not had rain in some time. These farms are burning up and extra feed is having to be fed to maintain rotation lengths at 20 to 22 days. If you have to go in with feed, anything above 2-3kg of supplement should be in the form of baled silage.

Good-quality baled silage is an excellent feed and those who made the really good silage from surplus grass in May and June don’t see any drop in yield once this is fed back to milkers during grass shortages over the summer.

Rule of thumb

As a rule of thumb, if silage is yielding any more than three or four bales per acre, then it is not good enough for milking cows and should only be fed to dry cows. Feed may only be needed for a few days to reduce the demand sufficiently and give the grass a chance.

For most farmers though, the issue is too much grass and it’s making bales, not feeding bales, that is on the agenda.

A lot of farmers are worried about a drought affecting them. Average farm covers could be let build up to maybe 200kg or 220kg per cow, but I don’t think any higher than this is justified as quality deteriorates and it becomes harder to clean out higher covers.

Remember, re-growths are slower after grazing heavy covers, topping and mowing, so doing a lot of this is sure to drop growth rates.

  • Average growth rate 70kg per day.
  • Most farms are growing surpluses.
  • Farms that haven’t got rain are having to feed supplement.
  • Growth over the next 10 days will depend on whether or not your farm gets rain – scattered showers forecast for the weekend.
  • Donal Patton, Teagasc, Ballyhaise

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.9

    Growth rate (kg/day) 58

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 126

    Yield (kg/cow/day) 20.3

    Fat % 4.53

    Protein % 3.61

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3

    Average farm cover is on the low side this week at 126kg/cow. Last week, we skipped over a few paddocks on the wedge to get in and graze the reseeds but when we went to the paddocks we should have been grazing they were gone too strong so I cut them for silage. This has reduced the cover per cow but I’m hoping it was the right thing to do.

    We got some rain last week so the fields are showing no signs of moisture stress. I’m feeding 3kg of meal for the next few days because pre-grazing yields are low at 1,000kg. After seven weeks of AI, the bulls went in today.

    Steven Fitzgerald, Curtins Farm

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.82

    Growth rate (kg/day) 67

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 173

    Yield (kg/cow/day) 22

    Fat % 4.61

    Protein % 3.65

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0

    The fields here are beginning to show signs of stress. The showers of last week seem to have passed us by. We put two paddocks back into the rotation that were destined for silage to hold rotation length. These had a cover of 1,700kg/ha so were on the high side but quality wasn’t too bad. Current rotation length is 22 days but I am worried that if rain doesn’t come soon we will see a big drop in rotation length. We cut two more paddocks last week that were too strong for grazing. They yielded four bales/acre but at least they are cut and back growing now. Looking forward to meeting everyone at Moorepark next Wednesday.

    Noel O’Toole, Kilimor, Co Galway

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 4.08

    Growth rate (kg/day) 76

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 183

    Yield (kg/cow/day) 22

    Fat % 4.49

    Protein % 3.79

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 2

    Things are going really well on the farm this week. Ten days ago, I thought we were beginning to dry up but a small bit of rain and some warm, clammy weather with a good dew at night changed all that. Pre-grazing yield is a little bit on the high side but the quality is still reasonably good so I am happy enough.

    We were letting covers build up because I thought grass was slowing down so the pre-grazing yields rose. Cows are milking well – there are a couple more repeats than I would like but it’s early days yet. The bulls are with the herd now.

    Alan Hughes, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow

    Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.54

    Growth rate (kg/day) 34

    Average farm cover (kg/cow) 146

    Yield (kg/cow/day) 24

    Fat % 4.24

    Protein % 3.68

    Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 9

    Growth rate here last week was 34kg/day and the week before it was 33kg/day, so we are really struggling with a drought. While my average farm cover per cow appears to be OK, the average farm cover per ha is only 371kg as I’ve all the farm available for grazing. Pre-grazing yield is about 1,000kg but is going to drop off rapidly unless we get rain over the weekend, which is unlikely. We are feeding 5kg of concentrate per cow and about 4kg of baled silage. I had intended on closing more area for second cut but now I am grazing everything. I am happy with how breeding is going, with non-return rates to first service above 60%.