Grass+ Beef: first of cattle turned out for many

February ended on a bit of a sour note with the level of rainfall that hit, but conditions have improved considerably and ground is now trafficable for the most part. Speaking to a lot of farmers, trafficability isn’t the main issue at the minute; it’s the lack of grass. Farmers grazed late in to the back end last year; afraid that leaving grass over winter would only result in seeing it waving in the wind and rain in March, with the net result being that a lot of farms are on the tighter side for grass.

Happily though, growth is set to lift with the more favourable weather and it is now likely a good time to get nutrients out onto paddocks. Between 20 and 23 units N/acre in the form of protected urea will suffice, or alternatively some slurry if to hand and you wish to build up indexes on paddocks.

I spread some soiled water on half a paddock approximately two weeks ago, and the colour difference was shocking for what you would think is a low-nutrient product. While a lot of people think that greening up grass with nutrients is of little value unless you can see physical growth, this time of the year a green grass leaf is going to photosynthesise a lot more sunlight than a burnt yellow leaf, so when growth does kick in into second gear, your green leaf is ready to rock.

Stephen Frend, Newford Herd, Co Roscommon

Cows came in for a week in late February, but have been back out to grass full time the last six days. We have 49 cows and calves turned out, split into two groups, with the strongest 35 bunched together. Our beef and bulling heifers remain at grass, while we also turned out our bullocks this week on to some silage ground, with the aim being to get these covers whipped off and either reseed in early April, or reseed in mid/late May after the first cut.

Twenty-three units N/acre was spread across 75% of the farm, with the remaining ground having received slurry already. The 20-acre block the cows are grazing will hopefully receive slurry next week some time. Mortality is at 0%, with 61 cows now calved.

System :Suckler to beef

Soil Type:Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha):814

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day):10

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day):20

John Dunne, Portarlington, Co Offaly

We are starting to spread slurry this week on our red clover silage, with the aim being to cut this in early May. The grass silage fields are being grazed with cows and calves at the minute, with calving taking place two weeks earlier to have stronger calves going to grass.

The aim is to get this grazed off as quickly as possible and get slurry out on it, with urea topping up fields then towards the end of March. Now it the critical time in the grass calendar, as it will dictate when we can get our first cut done, which will also affect when we can get second-cut silage complete and return this back to grazing.

Once silage ground is grazed off, cows and calves will be back out on to grazing paddocks.

System: Suckler/ dairy calf to beef

Soil Type: Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 783

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): n/a

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 36

Peter Doyle, Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath

Cows and calves have been turned out this week into dry, sheltered paddocks close to the yard, with the groups split into mature cows and first-calved heifers.

The first-calved heifers are receiving 2kg/head/day of concentrates at grass to maintain body conditions and get them back cycling again. To date, 50% of the herd has been calved down, with calving starting in the second week of February.

Ground conditions are very good, with little damage being done. Yearling heifers for breeding have also been turned out on paddocks further away from the yard. Half of the grazing paddocks will be spread with a half bag of protected urea/acre in the next few days. Soil temperature has been recorded at 7°C.

System:Suckler to beef

Soil Type:Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha):823

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day):n/a

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day):10