Watch: getting ready for spring in Monaghan

The dry autumn allowed slurry tanks to be emptied on programme farms and there is no immediate pressure on storage as the closed period ends this week. However, most farmers are still keen to get slurry out on to ground to boost grass growth rates as temperatures rise.

Recent rain and snow set ground conditions back a bit from where they were a few weeks ago, although in most cases slurry can still go on to drier fields.

Getting ready for spring in Monaghan.

The issue for many farmers is that grass covers are too heavy for slurry following the mild winter. Dairylink adviser Conail Keown is encouraging farmers to get young stock out to graze off heavier covers on outfarms. He points out that this will allow slurry to be applied and will improve digestibility in first-cut silage, as dead material in swards is cleaned off by calves. It may seem too cold to be turning young stock out, but experience from Dairylink farms in previous years shows that calves perform well from early turnout.

Weanlings

Conail’s advice is to put calves into well-sheltered fields first and feed 1kg to 2kg/head/day of concentrates in troughs. Early grass is high in protein, very digestible and has high energy content and when calves are turned out they have access to it continuously.

Early grass and concentrates is a better-quality and cheaper feed than winter rations. Outdoors is also a cleaner environment than the calf shed. However, if weather does take a turn for the worse in February, then calves can be brought back in again with no major issues.

The last soil samples were taken on Dairylink farms this week ahead of the first slurry and nitrogen fertiliser going on to ground from the weekend onwards. These samples will be analysed and will form the basis of fertiliser plans on phase two farms for the 2019 season.

Weekly round-up

The spring-calving group on Frank Goodman’s farm near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, started calving last weekend. There were two cows calved down at time of going to print and all 66 cows in the spring group should be finished by the end of April.

There are 34 cows milking on Frank’s farm at present, including 16 cows from the autumn-calving group and 16 stale cows. Seven cows in the stale group are due to be dried off shortly and the other nine are to be culled.

When standing in Frank’s calf shed, it is clear that hygiene is high up his list of priorities, as floors and walls are in immaculate condition ahead of calving.

Calves are in individual pens for a few days until they are drinking well and then they move into groups of 10 on woodchip bedding.

Calves are on whole milk for the first two weeks, then will go on to powdered milk until weaning.

“We might delay weaning slightly this year until 10 or 11 weeks so that calves are eating more concentrate and growth doesn’t slow up as they are moved off milk,” Frank said.

Calves eventually go into groups of 20 and will be moved out to a small paddock beside the calf shed around that time.

All cows are being vaccinated for rotavirus this year. Frank used the vaccine for the first time last year on the autumn-calving group and found that there were very few issues with scour in calves.

Grazing

Ground conditions are excellent on the Goodman farm at present and Frank is hoping to get milking cows out by day next week, weather-permitting.

The grazing platform is well laid out for early grazing, with a network of laneways and multiple entry points to paddocks. His fodder budget at the back end showed that stocks could be tight for winter.

However, some round bales were purchased and weanlings have been out for three weeks on an outfarm, which has taken the pressure off.

Frank will have some maize and grass silage left, which will be useful to have in the bank in case conditions are wet in the late spring.

There were strong covers on out-lying blocks on the Goodman farm, although some have been grazed off by young stock after they were turned out in early January.

There are 40 weanlings at grass at present, with meal fed in troughs at 1kg/head/day.

Grazed ground and any fields with lower covers on outfarms will get slurry in the next few days to allow growth to keep pushing on and lower tanks when ground conditions are good.

Frank also plans to get on to the grazing platform next week with the fertiliser spreader and spread 35 to 40 units of urea.

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