Average grass growth rate across the country this week is a staggering 75kg/day, over 20kg/day higher than the 10-year average. This is great news as it gives farmers lots of options heading into autumn as it is so easy to build up a cover of grass. The target average farm cover for this week is to be between 750kg and 1,000kg/ha, or between 300kg and 330kg/cow, depending on stocking rate.
Average grass growth rate across the country this week is a staggering 75kg/day, over 20kg/day higher than the 10-year average.
This is great news as it gives farmers lots of options heading into autumn as it is so easy to build up a cover of grass. The target average farm cover for this week is to be between 750kg and 1,000kg/ha, or between 300kg and 330kg/cow, depending on stocking rate.
Calculating cover
If grass demand is 48kg/day (eg 2.8 cows/ha) and growth is 75kg, then average farm cover is increasing at a rate of 27kg/ha/day. Growth is normally in the mid-50s at this time of year and building up grass is usually much slower and involves reducing demand by feeding supplement.
Not this year though. If anything, it is building up too fast for lower-stocked farmers who will have to remove excess in the form of silage.
Carrying a high cover is risky on heavy land as high covers are harder to graze
The target for mid-September is to be at an average farm cover of between 1,000 and 1,200kg/ha. If growth continues at the current rate, many farms will be at this earlier than budgeted.
If you’re highly stocked, this isn’t a problem as it means you will be ahead of target now, but will probably mean you will be back on target in a few more weeks but the difference is less supplement will be fed to get there.
Lower stocked farmers are in danger of having too much grass too soon. In this situation, some surplus paddocks may need to be baled, but this should be done as soon as possible. Remember, growth rates will be slower after cutting.
Carrying a high cover is risky on heavy land as high covers are harder to graze, especially in wet weather. Finally, while growth rates are high now, they won’t remain high forever so be prepared for a reduction in growth over the next few weeks.
Grass growth is excellent at 75kg per day.Average farm cover is increasing faster than normal so less supplement will be needed.Lower stocked farms may have to cut surplus paddocks to avoid having too much grass.
Teagasc Curtins Farm
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.76
Growth rate (kg/day) 63
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 826
Yield (l/cow/day) 17.3
Fat % 5.23
Protein % 3.94
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.63
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 2
We are slightly behind target average farm cover. It should be 876kg/ha this week but growth is reasonably good and we are feeding 2kg of meal so we should catch up by next week. We are just finishing the second-last round of nitrogen and are spreading 27 units/acre of CAN, with another bag/acre of CAN to blanket-spread before the end of the closed period in two weeks’ time. We also spread 50 units/acre of muriate of potash across the whole farm last week. We are spraying the reseeds today and hope to graze them next week.
Teagasc Ballyhaise
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.06
Growth rate (kg/day) 76
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 866
Yield (l/cow/day) 15.06
Fat % 4.70
Protein % 3.86
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.33
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1
We have two paddocks skipped over for silage; they have a grass cover of 2,000kg and 2,100kg respectively. Growth rate has been good at 76kg/day and if we didn’t cut out the surplus we’d be way ahead of where we need to be, and on a heavy enough farm that’s not a good place to be. Because growth is good we are still only feeding 1kg of meal per cow per day, even though the stocking rate in this treatment is high enough. Cows have slipped a bit in litres but fat and protein percent is increasing.
Killimor, Co Galway
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 4.25
Growth rate (kg/day) 87
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1,149
Yield (l/cow/day) 17
Fat % 4.80
Protein % 3.70
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.49
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3
Growth rate has been fantastic for the past few weeks and we are building cover faster than normal. Because we have a high stocking rate, I’d normally be feeding 4 or 5kg of silage to the cows around now, but at the moment I’m only giving them about 1kg/day after milking and 2kg of meal. The challenge now is to hold average farm cover. I don’t really want it to go any higher because then pre-grazing yields will be too strong. Cows are grazing covers of about 2,200kg/ha. I’m spreading one bag/acre of SulCAN and I hope Galway win the All-Ireland.
Kilmacthomas, Waterford
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.72
Growth rate (kg/day) 58
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 962
Yield (l/cow/day) 19.75
Fat % 4.17
Protein % 3.61
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.58
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3
Growth rates are normal enough here and we are slightly behind target average farm cover but then again we do have a high stocking rate so demand is high at 59kg/ha/day. We increased meal feeding to 3kg/cow on Monday. Pre-grazing yields are getting high at around 2,000kg. I have two bags/acre of 18:6:12 to spread. This will be the last application of fertiliser for this year. I was going to spread it next week, but we could have sore heads after the All-Ireland so I’m going to spread it on Friday instead.
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