With breeding kicking off this week for many, the warm, settled period will be appreciated by farmers and cows alike.

It was a tough spring on both, and solids suffered with cows on silage in March despite high levels of meal going in.

Breeding is a busy time on farms, but it also coincides with peak grass growth. Taking the eye of the ball with grass covers and simply following the rotation can end up harming the bulk tank, as well as breeding itself.

The aim should be to keep cows’ diets as consistent as possible over the next couple of weeks, and ensure that cows are kept full and content.

Grass management is very much a balancing act, with farmers often saying high growth can be as hard to manage as low growth. For fear of sounding like a broken record, farm walks need to be done at least once if not twice a week.

With some farms recording average growths in the 70s, covers of over 1,000 on these farms are likely hitting in excess of 100kg growth.

Getting creative with the PastureBase app will allow you to remove paddocks for reseeding, long or short term silage and will best show how your farm will be set up for the near future.

A lot of farmers will now be cutting back on N application to clover swards to typically half the level applied to grass only swards.

Applying 2,000 gallons of dairy washings/acre will supply roughly eight units N, 1.4 units P and 10 units of K, so can act as a good substitute for chemical N, especially where K is required.

Michael Doran – Duncormick, Co Wexford

We have 30ha out for first cut silage, the heifers are home for breeding and we have 4ha sprayed for reseeding, which are all bumping up the stocking rate.

Heifers are home for two weeks and will go back out to the out farm post breeding.

We will assess grass growth after first cut to see how much we take out for second cut. We have 300t DM of silage in reserve, but would like to have more than this.

All the grazing platform is in clover swards receiving 150kg N/year, which we front load in spring. This will now receive 8kg N/round, or 0.5 units/day.

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 5.3

Growth Rate (kg/day) 72

Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 140

Yield (l/cow) 25.1

Fat % 4.26

Protein% 3.57

Milk Solids (kg/cow) 2.02

Concentrates 2.5

Joe Deane – Carrigaline, Co Cork

We’ve pulled out paddocks there on Monday, which will be mowed and baled this week. We will take out paddocks as necessary, but prefer not to take anything out in long term silage.

From now on we will be cutting back on fertiliser, with no chemical N on clover swards. These will receive soiled water and potassium sulphate.

First cut silage will be mowed on the out block in the next two weeks.

This will receive slurry and protected urea for second cut silage.

Cows have really only settled in the last week or so, and we have begun breeding on Tuesday of this week.

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.82

Growth Rate (kg/day) 79

Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 179

Yield (l/cow) 26

Fat % 4.2

Protein% 3.6

Milk Solids (kg/cow) 2.08

Concentrates 2

Donal Patton – Teagasc Ballyhaise, Co Cavan

Grass has been moving but conditions are still a little tricky after 14-15mm of rain over the weekend. We have skipped two paddocks for silage that have 3,000 of a cover on them.

These were grazed back in early March and will be mowed on Tuesday and picked Wednesday or Thursday.

We are five to six days away from the third round. We are following cows now every week with fertiliser, spreading 20 units of protected urea/acre.

Red clover silage will be mowed this evening and baled alongside the grass paddocks. Pre-breeding checks on cows that haven’t cycled or are dirty will also be done this week.

Stocking Rate (cows/ha) 3.23

Growth Rate (kg/day) 58

Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 218

Yield (l/cow) 24.8

Fat % 4.6

Protein% 3.54

Milk Solids (kg/cow) 2.08

Concentrates 2