With over 80 cows and their calves and 200 ewes and lambs at grass at this stage, demand for grass is rapidly increasing on Tullamore Farm.
The past 10 days to two weeks has seen grass growth curtailed, initially due to wet weather and more recently due to low temperatures.
This leaves the average farm cover at a little over 500kg DM/ha at the moment.
While this is still acceptable, the worry is that grass demand is currently exceeding growth.
Burst of growth
If a burst of growth does not come over the weekend or early next week, Shaun will be forced to start meal feeding to cows to slow up the rotation.
The forecast for the weekend and into next week looks milder, so we are quite confident this won’t have to happen, but it is good to have a plan in place.
What grass is on farm is of really high quality and stock are doing very well on it.
The oldest batch of calves are really starting to thrive at this stage.
On the sheep front, Shaun is down to less than 30 ewes to lamb at this stage.
Overall, lambing has gone well, with only a few poor days of weather that meant ewes and lambs had to be held up inside for a 48- to 72-hour period.
Ewes that are currently lambing are being turned out to grass within the first 24 hours.
Read more
Beef management: getting ready for breeding, dosing and silage budgeting
Watch: grazing update from Thrive demo farm
UK demand pushes beef to €4.30/kg
With over 80 cows and their calves and 200 ewes and lambs at grass at this stage, demand for grass is rapidly increasing on Tullamore Farm.
The past 10 days to two weeks has seen grass growth curtailed, initially due to wet weather and more recently due to low temperatures.
This leaves the average farm cover at a little over 500kg DM/ha at the moment.
While this is still acceptable, the worry is that grass demand is currently exceeding growth.
Burst of growth
If a burst of growth does not come over the weekend or early next week, Shaun will be forced to start meal feeding to cows to slow up the rotation.
The forecast for the weekend and into next week looks milder, so we are quite confident this won’t have to happen, but it is good to have a plan in place.
What grass is on farm is of really high quality and stock are doing very well on it.
The oldest batch of calves are really starting to thrive at this stage.
On the sheep front, Shaun is down to less than 30 ewes to lamb at this stage.
Overall, lambing has gone well, with only a few poor days of weather that meant ewes and lambs had to be held up inside for a 48- to 72-hour period.
Ewes that are currently lambing are being turned out to grass within the first 24 hours.
Read more
Beef management: getting ready for breeding, dosing and silage budgeting
Watch: grazing update from Thrive demo farm
UK demand pushes beef to €4.30/kg
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