For Co Laois Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge participants Joe and Harry Lalor, their first time out-wintering cattle on Redstart is going well so far.

With a total of 13ac of Redstart sown, the father-and-son pair have 71 cattle out on the crop at present; 66 weanling heifers and five cull cows.

For feed-out, the fence is being moved two yards twice daily while a bale of silage is also being allocated once daily to ensure fibre is maintained in the diet.

Problems with heifers going under the strip-wire have been rectified by putting a bracket on the temporary fencing stakes and running a second poly-wire along the feed face.

While the crop was being sown, a 30ft strip of headland was left outside the cattle to make access the round feeder easier when delivering the bale of silage. This has worked very well keeping ground damage from heavy machinery to a minimum.

Sowing

The crop was sown by direct-drilling on 1 August after a crop of silage was harvested. The direct drilling method resulted in no disturbance of the sod by simply cutting a slot in the ground and then dropping the seed into that slot.

Harry explained his thinking behind using the direct-drilling method: “We burned off the grass after the silage was cut and sowed the Redstart by direct drilling. It works very well now having the bit of grass coming up with the crop because it keeps the soil structure in place.”

The field only got two bags of 22.7-2.5-5 fertiliser/ac during sowing as it was felt that nutrient levels in the soil would be good as a result of the 18:6:12 for the silage crop.

All cattle were bolused before going on to the crop to help eliminate any problems with copper or iodine deficiencies.

To manage the changeover from grass to brassicas, cattle were eased on to the Redstart for around five days, only getting five or six hours per day.

Once they were waiting to get back into it, they were kept there permanently.

Faster growing

The Lawlors also have another 14ac of rape, which was sown on stubble ground. This was sown late, around 10 September, as the barley crop was late getting harvested.

The decision was taken to sow rape as opposed to Redstart as it is a faster growing crop.

All going well, the rape should be at a suitable height for feeding out by the time the Redstart has been grazed.

The Lalors made use of the Fodder Production Incentive Scheme, which allocated €100/ha for sowing catch crops such as rape and Redstart after tillage crops. It is hoped the crops will last until the end of January and, after that, the cattle will go out to grass before first-cut silage fertiliser is applied.