The weather and growth rates continue in the changeable May mode.
Some very cold nights and early mornings have been mixed in with some very warm daytime temperatures. The result is that grass growth rates have fluctuated from 40 to 100kg/day on farms and across farms.
On farms, especially those paddocks that have a decent cover of grass, the shelter the grass provides has seen growth rates lift up towards 100kg per day.
The bare paddocks that are more exposed to the cold chill haven’t moved on as quick and some are recording growth rates closer to 40kg per day.
Ground conditions remain difficult in parts with heavy soils and there are trafficability issues on some farms.
This hasn’t prevented grazing on many farms but it has made grazing more difficult. Fertiliser spreading has also been an issue, with tracks left from previous spreading becoming even more pronounced on some farms.
The advice continues along the lines that if the paddock is gone too strong for grazing then skip over it. If doing this, then it is vital that you keep up to speed on spreading nitrogen.
Most farms are primed with slurry and nitrogen so keep bag nitrogen spread if stocked high.
Walk the farm twice a week – if you don’t do it potentially you could lose control in the space of a couple of days. Remember, when growth rates are hitting those sort of levels you need a short rotation to stay on top of it.
Teagasc Curtins Farm
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 4.0
Growth rate (kg/day) 61kg
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 588kg
Yield(l/cow/day) 22.1
Fat (%) 4.53
Protein (%) 3.56
Milk solids (kg/cow/day) 1.8kg
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0.2kg
Growth is still stubbornly behind where we would like it for time of year but we have jumped stocking rate to 3.9 cows/ha. Clean-out was very good over last week in general. We are getting down to residuals of 4cm which is near perfect for the time of year.
Milk yield is 22.1 litres at 4.53% fat, 3.56% protein (1.8 kg MS) and SCC is averaging 77 cells/ml. The herd is receiving 16.5kg of grass and 0.2kg concentrate. Current performance is on a par with last year.
We have 19 days of breeding completed and 85% of the herd submitted.
Teagasc Ballyhaise, Cavan
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.5
Growth rate (kg/day) 50kg
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 650kg
Yield (l/cow/day) 23.0
Fat (%) 4.32
Protein (%) 3.48
Milk solids (kg/cow/day) 1.8kg
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1.0kg
We found growth dropped back again from 64kg last week to 50kg/day for the last seven days. We had earmarked a paddock for silage (cover of 2,000kg) but we are going to have the let the cows into it.
We are following the cows with 30 units of urea with sulphur. While warm, there is enough moisture around this part to make urea (46% N) an option.
Milk yield is 23.0 litres at 4.32% fat, 3.48% protein (1.8 kg MS) and SCC is averaging 62,000 cells/ml. The herd is allocated 16kg of grass and get the 1kg mag nut in the parlour. We started breeding seven days ago and 41% are submitted already.
Co Kilkenny
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.8
Growth rate (kg/day) 70kg
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 450kg
Yield(l/cow/day) 23
Fat (%) 3.88
Protein (%) 3.54
Milk solids (kg/cow/day) 1.8kg
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1.5kg
The milking herd went into a cover of 1,300kg early in the week and it looked a little hungry for nitrogen. We had the cover per cow down to 120kg so we had to graze it.
The herd is milking well at 23 litres per day at 3.88% fat and 3.54% protein (1.8kg MS/cow/day).
We have moved from one variety per paddock to two varieties per paddock when reseeding. We have Aberclyde and Abermagic mixed with 1kg of clover in bags for next reseed.
A lot of our platform is steep hill that we can’t cut for silage and to complicate things slightly more we tend to work night paddocks over 1km from the parlour with daytime grazing nearer the parlour.
Stradone, Cavan
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.5
Growth rate (kg/day) 70
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 605
Yield(l/cow/day) 31.0
Fat (%) 3.71
Protein (%) 3.43
Milk solids (kg/cow/day) 2.3kg
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3kg
We skipped over 15ha of the first round of grazing as we simply couldn’t get to it with the cows in the first round given the weather problems. It means we have a good area for first-cut silage and hope to take it out in two weeks’ time. The herd is milking well, averaging over 30 litres, and we have cut back meal from 4kg to 3kg/cow. About 30% of the herd are heifers so that makes it an even better average. Fat has gradually come down from 3.90% to 3.70s but all the May protein figures are hovering around 3.40% and the last one came in at 3.43%. We are spreading 20 units of nitrogen with two bags of 18:6:12 and a bag of urea per acre already spread.
