The last week saw up to three times normal rainfall levels hit some parts of the west, while along the east and south we saw rainfall levels below normal for the time of year.
The rain it has put a hairpin in grazing efforts for those west of the Shannon, but drier farms along the east and south east are seeing ground soak out as cattle start to hit covers hard.
What has been a disappointment of late is recovery of grazed swards, with average growth rates well below normal for the last three weeks in a row now.
A combination of heavy rainfall saturating ground as well as cool air temperatures has led to low soil temperatures and consequently low grass growth.
Hopefully the predicted grass growth from PastureBase will come through and we will see growth rise sharply.
Mark Maxwell – Ballinagore, Co Westmeath
Calving has gone very well for us so far, and we are now able to turn out cows and calves in the few days post calving.
We have been gradually turning out store cattle the last few weeks, but we are eating in to our covers a lot with recovery much slower than would be expected.
The fact that we had a high opening cover has been an addition here, and we would hope growth will kick off now soon.
We have begun spreading CAN+ S on some grazing ground, with this being the first application of fertiliser.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 746
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 14
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 50
Jack Spillane – Tipperary Farm, Co Tipperary
We’ve had about 10 days dry now which has really firmed things up, and while recovery had been slow up until now, this week’s growth has kicked off well.
We have closed 55% of the farm for first cut silage and received 70 units N/acre last week. At the same time, I spread 1 bag/acre of protected urea across the remaining grazing ground, with his being the second round of fertiliser.
We are probably a week or so away from starting the second round of grazing, and while covers are low growth should lift these quickly.
System Dairy calf to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 873
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 46
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 48
Shaun Diver – Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly
Soil temperatures have risen to 10.5°C. We planned on spreading 40 acres of silage ground this week, but with some rainfall forecast towards the latter end of the week, we are holding off until the early days of next week.
We will spread three bags cut sward/acre plus sulphur on this, having received 3,000 gallons of slurry to the acre last week.
There are 37 cows and calves at grass compared to last year having nearly all out. This has depleted feedstocks and is a worry and challenge in a year of high input prices.
System Suckler to beef
Soil Type Variable
Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 907
Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 23
Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 16
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