Cavan runs a herd of 160 mostly British Friesian x Holstein-bred cows with a rolling yield of 8,162 litres, with 4,562 litres coming from forage. Cows calve down from November through to April and are currently yielding 28.7 litres at 4.36% butterfat and 3.31% protein.

Cavan’s farm is on very dry land, with cows turning out to grass in early February and housed towards the end of November most years.

The dry land means grassland management can be difficult in June, particularly when there has been low rainfall. Nitrogen sewn in the last week of May this year hasn’t been taken up by the grass plant and grass has continued to stem very quickly.

On Thursday, the paddock that the cows were in had been grazed by the cows for the first 12-hour grazing with a strong residual cover being left behind. The second grazing was pre-mown. However, in areas of heavier covers, harder grass was still left behind.

CAFRE adviser Conail Keown has recommended that the rest of the paddock, which has covers of 3,600kg DM/ha, needs to be taken out for bales and first-cut regrowth close to the yard should be used to make up for the deficit on the grazing platform.

Listen to Conail discuss issues with maintaining grass quality on the grazing platform on Cavan’s farm:

Further coverage from the Genus ABS open day will feature in next week’s edition of the Irish Farmers Journal and on www.farmersjournal.ie