It’s been a dream couple of weeks for grazing, with farmers reporting grass growth being good, grazing conditions being excellent and cattle being more content than they have been for the majority of the year.

This raises it’s own debate regarding closing cover. Farmers I’ve talked to in the last week (including Willie Treacy below) are debating what to do with grass; keep grazing hard while ground is good, or house cattle when the farm reaches it’s target closing cover.

Do the first, and you run the risk of being tight for grass in spring, when it is more valuable to you. Do the second, and you could just as easily be looking at grass waving in sodden paddocks come next spring, which are then difficult to graze out and slow to regrow.

There’s no right or wrong answer really. Advisors would likely say to not dip below the target closing cover, but with the variability in weather, science doesn’t always have the right answer. Take this spring for example, when February was excellent.

Farmers who ignored the spring planner and grazed hard reaped the benefits, as cattle had to be rehoused due to wet weather in March, while those who had limited grazing and stuck to the rules suffered.

If you have good access to dry paddocks and a relatively high demand for grass in spring, then there is merit in holding grass over, but if you are calving later, not heavily stocked or have poor grazing infrastructure, you are likely better to graze hard while the going is good.

Soil sampling

In the coming months, it is to every farmers benefit to soil sample their land. Wait at least 12 weeks since the last application of fertiliser of organic manures for the most accurate results.

It’s recommended to take 20 cores per area, no larger than 4 hectares, mixing them into a single representative sample. Collect cores in a “W” pattern at a depth of 10 cm for accurate results. Avoid sampling near gates, feeders, or other high-traffic spots.

Final grass page

With this being the final grass page of the year, I would like to thank all the farmers who have contributed throughout the last 9 months. Your time, effort and good humour are very much appreciated, and it is you that make the page a worthwhile read each week.

William Treacy – Hackballscross, Co Louth

We still have around two thirds of the cattle out, with just finishing bulls, heifers and some cull cows in at the minute. While cover has dipped, growth is still holding up so I won’t panic about housing just yet.

Two weeks ago, I expected the majority of stock to be in by now, but between the saving in slurry and meal feeding to autumn calving cows, it’s a great boost to keep stock out.

I’m weighing up the options as to what closing cover to go with this year. Last year we had a high closing cover due to the wet weather, and nearly everything had to be zero grazed in spring then.

I’m considering whether I should graze hard now while weather allows as opposed to holding grass for spring.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 555

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 37

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 31

Stephen Frend – Newford Herd, Co Roscommon

All weanlings and 25 cows remain at grass. These remaining cows will likely be housed over the coming week. As we stand, we should have enough grass for the bullock weanlings for 10 days, with heifers hopefully staying out until 1 December.

Weanlings received their IBR vaccine today and were weighed, with bullocks and heifers averaging 325kg and 315kg liveweight, gaining 0.8kg and 0.7kg/day respectively since weaning.

We sent eight bullocks and 16 heifers for slaughter last week. The kill-out of the heifers was slightly disappointing at 52%, with a target of 54%, bullocks killed out at 355kg DW and graded R=3-, with heifers killing at 315kg carcase at R-3=

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 841

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 13

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 14

Peter Doyle – Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath

Weanlings are at grass and very content, receiving 1kg/head/day of concentrates. Cows and weanlings were recently dung sampled, as last year we had some issues with fluke, which is not commonplace here on the farm.

Silage test results are back, and we are very pleased with them. Silage for dry cows is coming in at 12% protein and 68 DMD, with our red clover silage for weanlings (first and third cut) at 76% DMD and 14% and 16% protein respectively.

The second cut red clover is sitting at 73 DMD with a 15% protein content. This will be held over for lactating cows in spring.

We are concentrating grazing efforts at clover paddocks to get these cleaned off ahead of closing.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 767

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 14

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 18