Grass+ beef: good forecast can reduce silage pressure

Average grass growth on our beef farms was down at 22kg DM/ha for the last seven days. However, grazing is a pipe dream for many at this stage. Even those on the driest farms report that a lot of cattle are in off the land.

Thankfully, there are decent conditions forecast for the coming days. This may afford farmers a chance to get young stock back outdoors. In truth, this is the best environment for them and we need to try as best we can to graze off a good portion of the farm (60%) by next week.

Try hard to make this happen. If needs be, go into lighter covers, keeping an eye on the area that you are getting through. Continue to supplement young stock with 1-2kg at grass to make up for the energy deficit arising from low grass feeding value and cooler temperatures. However, take this into account when setting up your grazing allocations – grass intake will be somewhat reduced by meal in the diet.

There might be an opportunity to get lime and potash (MOP) out during the weekend on very dry ground. Two tonnes of lime/acre would lift pH from 5.5 to six on a dry, sandy soil. Up to twice this amount would be needed for the same effect on heavy clay soils.

Fodder

I carried out three fodder budgets with farmers this week and all showed up deficits when we applied the “sluggish spring” scenario. Even though one of the farmers was still grazing most of his cattle, he was working from a slight deficit.

Many will take the “sure they’re in now, they can stay in” thought process from here on in despite the good weather that we are promised, but in reality we should be looking to take pressure off where we can. Turn lighter stock or stores back out if the ground allows, taking every precaution to minimise stress. Weanlings that have been off the cow for 10 days or more and are well settled could get back to grass too.

Animals destined for slaughter within a couple of months, or weanling bulls being targeted for an under-16-month slaughter, should not be turned back out at this point.

Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath

System suckler to beef

Soil type mixed

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 721

Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 12

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 43

Thankfully, there is no major damage in Grange following recent storms. However, there was a power outage resulting in no electric fences for a couple of days. Some calves took advantage and headed towards the sheds where their dams were housed. Power has since been restored and the calves have settled well.

In order to ensure 60% of the farm is grazed by the end of the first week of November, the target is to graze ~13% of this farm each week. Despite the reduced grass demand on farm last week (cows in), 19% of the farm was grazed. The target was exceeded by grazing some priority paddocks and drier paddocks that had low grass covers. For the week ahead, grass demand has reduced even further as all cows are housed and should see a smaller percentage of the farm grazed.

Ground conditions have deteriorated dramatically over the last week. In total, 30mm of rain fell over the last seven days.

Co Donegal

System suckler to weanling

Soil type heavy

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 809

Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 23

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 17

All cattle are now housed and we have over 50% of the farm closed for next year. The majority of this ground will be saved for cows and calves in spring. We have 30 heavy lambs left and these have now been housed and will hopefully be sold in the coming weeks.

Ewes are at grass and breeding has gone well so far. We had hoped to get lime out but the wet back end has hampered our plans. Soil fertility is something we hope to tackle over the duration of the programme and we’ve spread a lot of 18-6-12 this year. Thankfully we have ample amounts of fodder having carried out a fodder budget in early October. Silage results came back last week, with our second-cut silage surprising us, having a good DMD value of 73%. The dry matter for both samples is low, which we expected as it didn’t get much of a wilt prior to ensiling. The protein levels of both samples came back very low unfortunately so all weanlings kept this winter will receive 3-4kg of a 16% protein ration.

Waterford

System suckler to bull beef

Soil type variable

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) 551

Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) 27

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 18

The continued wet weather has left ground conditions extremely difficult and as a result grazing out is proving a challenge. Calving is almost complete at this stage and thankfully it went fairly well. Breeding is back under way and it is going good too. I am running four different groups for breeding. Two separate groups are running with Charolais stock bulls. I am using AI on another group with the aim of breeding replacements and my replacement heifers, which had three weeks of AI before my Limousin stock bull joined them. Last week during the bad weather I had to house the AI group as they started poaching. I separated them and their calves to break the bond, and I suckle them twice daily to try and get the cows back into heat quicker. All calves are being vaccinated for IBR and pneumonia intranasally from two weeks of age as I had a few issues with pneumonia at the same stage last year. Last year’s autumn-born bulls are currently on ad-lib meal for finishing on the grid (U16 month).

Co Cork

System suckler to store/weanling

Soil type heavy

Avg farm cover (kg DM/ha) n/a

Grass demand (kg DM/ha/day) n/a

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) n/a

The storms here knocked a few trees but thankfully that was the height of the damage. AI began here on 20 October and I brought cows and calves in to make things a bit easier. Calves are being let in to suck twice daily and have access to a grass paddock beside the shed. They’re very content there and spend most of the day outside.

I housed them last Thursday. It was a bad day and so not ideal. Thankfully, there were no major problems. My silage budget is telling me that I’m going to be short. I am looking to buy 100 bales now before everyone starts looking for them next spring. I have 69% DMD silage for my autumn calvers and am supplementing fresh calvers and first calvers with 1.5kg of the same 16% barley-beef mixture that the yearlings are getting.

In terms of AI bulls, I’m using Blues (ZSD, RWS) at the start. I find there’s a demand for them in July and August but then it drops off. After these I’ll use F276, LM2321, LM4302 and AGB (Limousin) and Charolais (FSZ).

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Grass+ dairy: yet weather ends grazing for many