Average grass growth is up to 65kg per day this week, tracking 15kg per day higher than the 10-year average.
Air temperatures have lifted again, so we should see another rise in soil temperatures and this should help growth stay the same or even rise further next week. The damp, humid weather is ideal for growth. However, heavy farms are suffering badly after last weekend’s rain. See our advice on how to manage in wet conditions.
While growth is good now, the evenings are beginning to close in and shorter daylight hours will reduce growth rates. We only have about three weeks of good growth rates left – come early October growth will decline sharply.
This means we must capitalise on growth over the next few weeks. Are you on target for grass? If not, you must supplement now. The target varies depending on stocking rate and growth characteristics of your farm but generally speaking you should be between 300kg and 350kg per cow now in terms of average farm cover.
For higher stocked farms, it is cover per hectare, not cover per cow that drives decisions. The maximum cover per hectare should be around 1,200kg in mid to late September. Any higher than this and pre-grazing yield gets too high and quality suffers.
On heavier farms a peak cover of 1,200kg/ha is too high as it is harder to graze out higher covers on heavy land so target to build covers only on the driest parts. It is now the last chance to spread nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser. The closing date is next Wednesday. Weather conditions are ideal for urea.
Shane Leane
Teagasc Curtins,
Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.96
Growth rate (kg/day) 71
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1,028
Yield (l/cow/day) 15
Fat % 5.43
Protein % 3.95
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.45
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0.2
Conditions couldn’t be better. We got a good growth rate this week which has pushed average farm cover above target. Our budget says we should be at 920kg/ha but we are at 1,028kg. We were thinking about taking out a paddock for silage but we decided against this as I think it’s too late for cutting silage and the weather is very variable. Protein continues to rise, which is good. SCC is holding up fairly good also at 86,000 – we are treating any cow above 400,000 on the milk recording. We vaccinated the herd for salmonella last week.
Donal Patton
Teagasc Ballyhaise
Co Cavan
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.78
Growth rate (kg/day) 59
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 923
Yield (l/cow/day) 15.7
Fat % 4.97
Protein % 3.85
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.43
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1
Growth is slightly below our average for early September but farm cover is on target. The target peak cover is 1,150 kg/ha in the first week of October. We got a lot of rain over the weekend and ground conditions are marginal, with water lying on some of the low-lying areas. This is having a negative impact on growth rates with dry paddocks growing 70-80kg/day and wet paddocks growing 40-50kg/day. The final spread of fertiliser is being done this week with 30 units of urea/acre bulk spread on all paddocks apart from those spread last week.
Aidan Kenny
Cloghan
Co Offaly
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 3.3
Growth rate (kg/day) 46
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 923
Yield (l/cow/day) 17
Fat % 4.65
Protein % 3.76
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.5
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0
Growth is back this week but grazing conditions are ideal. It’s been an excellent year for grass. I blanket spread half the farm two weeks ago with fertiliser and I went out this week on the other half with 1.75 bags per acre of 18:6:12. The part of the farm that wasn’t spread the last time was beginning to slow down a lot. Pre-grazing yield is about 1,600kg. I’m still on full paddocks and cleanout is excellent. I’ll be using the autumn rotation planner to manage grass from next month on – I think it’s easier to use and more effective than the grass budget.
Joe Dunphy & family
Easkey
Co Sligo
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.7
Growth rate (kg/day) 60
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 811
Yield (l/cow/day) 15.8
Fat % 4.8
Protein % 3.98
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.43
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 0
We got fierce rain over the weekend and there was a lot of water lying on the fields but it did go away fast enough and ground conditions are reasonably good now. It has been a super year for grass growth and we have lots of surplus bales made. We’ll keep these in reserve for the spring. Pre-grazing yield is around 1,500kg and cows are getting between 12 and 24 hours per paddock depending on the size of the paddock and the weather. We are on target for grass so no meal is being fed unless the weather is very bad.
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