Grass growth rates flatlined this week at 48kg/day on average across the country. For many farmers, the last week was one of the hardest of the spring.
While the quantity of rain that fell wasn’t exceptionally high, it was the nature of the cold and rain last week that caused most problems. Damage was done on many farms, clean-outs suffered and milk yield fell.
It appears that farmers in the west and north fared better than most, with farmers in the south getting the most of the bad weather.
The forecast for the coming week is much better, with little rain and much warmer air temperatures forecast. This should see growth rates jump. The challenge then will be to react in time to prevent pre-grazing yields getting too high. The issue on most farms is wet soils, not a shortage of grass. Therefore, as soon as land dries up the mowers will need to come out.
Farmers who took the handbrake off two weeks ago are tight for grass now because grass growth declined on their farms. Some have had to feed more meal and graze ground that was closed for silage. These are all good decisions based on growth rate and farm demand. At this stage in the year, average farm cover should be around 150 to 180kg/cow. All farms need to manage the wedge. If this means skipping over a few paddocks at different covers so be it. There is a risk of taking out too much ground at once. You want to give yourself enough time for paddocks that are cut to recover in time to be grazed again.
On fertiliser, the general rule of thumb is to spread 30 units of nitrogen for the month of May, which is basically one unit per day. So if on a 20-day round length you should spread 20 units after grazing. Conditions are ideal for urea, but avoid spreading urea on to bare paddocks on sunny and windy days as the risk of losses is greater.
Teagasc Curtins Farm, Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.87
Growth rate (kg/day) 56
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 160
Yield (l/cow/day) 22.3
Fat % 4.44
Protein % 3.51
Milk solids (kg/cow) 2
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0.2
We have 30% of the area topped up with 90 units of nitrogen for long-term silage. Grazing conditions have been difficult for the last few days and although we have managed to keep residuals at 3.5 to 4cm in the main, some paddocks have residuals of 4.5cm as it hasn’t been possible to achieve a good clean-out due to wet weather and a very active bulling herd. The herd are in good BCS, are showing very good bulling activity and milk proteins have crept back to normal levels. We are spreading a bag of stabilised urea with K and S after grazing.
Teagasc Ballyhaise, Cavan
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.28
Growth rate (kg/day) 51
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 216
Yield (l/cow/day) 24.5
Fat % 4.18
Protein % 3.42
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.92
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 2
We got a lot of rain on Tuesday night but not much damage was done as the cows were grazing a dry field. We got frost at night last week which burned the tips of the grass. We’re feeding 2kg of meal and still only have about 10% of the farm closed for silage but expect this to increase if the good weather comes.
We have paddocks earmarked for silage but will decide early next week if we need to skip them or not. We scanned cows on Tuesday and five cows that were calved more than 35 days got CIDRs.
Strokestown, Roscommon
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.2
Growth rate (kg/day) 53
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 240
Yield (l/cow/day) 30.5
Fat % 3.90
Protein % 3.38
Milk solids (kg/cow) 2.32
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 6
Last week wasn’t too bad here, but Tuesday was an awful bad night. Hopefully the weather will settle a bit now. If we got a week of high temperatures things would change fast. It’s cold at night and I’m seeing a big difference in growth rates. Anything with a cover of grass is growing OK, but recently grazed paddocks are just sitting there. We’re following the cows with 1.5 bags/acre of 18:6:12. The farm has got two bags/acre of urea already along with slurry in February so it is well set up for growth. Cows are milking well. I will reduce meal when weather improves.
Cuffsgrange, Kilkenny
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.93
Growth rate (kg/day) 67
Average farm cover (kg/cow) 154
Yield (l/cow/day) 27.8
Fat % 4.03
Protein % 3.44
Milk solids (kg/cow) 2.03
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3
We grew over 80kg here last Friday week so we decided to skip over three paddocks. Because the weather was so poor we didn’t get to cut them and when we measured this week growth was back and grass was tight so I had to graze one cover of over 2,000kg, which wasn’t ideal.
Demand is now 60 and we’re growing 67 so I’m happy enough. Protein is increasing the whole time now that cows are out full-time. It was 3.2% when they were getting silage.
The target for the next few months is to graze covers of 1,400kg.
