Grass+: growth rate creeping up

It has been a good week for grass and it looks like things are set to get even better over the course of the week ahead. The national average growth rate is sitting at around 30kg DM/ha/day.

Most farms will hit magic day over the next week or two. Magic day is where grass growth surpasses demand.

This will mean your farm is in a position to build grass again. However, the plan should be to manage quality rather than build. The best way to do this is to measure your grass weekly and look at the figures.

The main figure we want to look at along with growth and demand is the cover/livestock unit (lu) or days ahead for beef farmers. The cover/lu should be maintained around 180kg/lu or 10-12 days grass ahead for April once you pass magic day on your farm.

Adjusting your stocking rate on the farm is the easiest way to maintain your cover/lu when growth exceeds demand. This can be done by letting an extra paddock up for first-cut silage or taking a paddock or two out for spring reseeding.

Silage ground

The late turnout may mean you aren’t going to get all of your silage ground grazed before your planned closing date. Pushing this back could have a knock-on effect on silage quality in your first and second cuts. To cut before 1 June, ground should be closed before the weekend is out.

Typically, old pasture requires 80-90units/ac of N while reseeded swards will utilise 100units/ac. Any paddock yielding 12t/ac of silage will need 14units/ac of P and 100units/ac of K to replace the P and K being taken off.

John O’Connor

Kildalton Ag College

We closed up silage ground at the weekend and this received 2bags/ac of urea along with 2,000gal/ac of slurry. All of the ground received slurry in late January and then a half bag of urea/ac in February. This week, lower-index paddocks are getting 1.5 bags/ac of 18:6:12. Both calving and lambing went very well this spring and, as of last week, all stock are out. Between 5 January and 28 March, we had 56 live calves out of 58 calvings. Breeding started on 25 March and will last eight weeks. The Charolais stock bull went out with lower-index cows and the high-index cows and maiden heifers are being bred to AI. The 120 ewes lambed between 20 February and the first week of April.

James and John Flaherty

Castleisland, Co Kerry

It’s been a late spring here but our 45 cows and their calves and our 22 store heifers are at grass now. We didn’t have too much time to worry about turnout in March, as all 45 calves were born in just 35 days. We had one mortality. Breeding will begin in early May and we have the vasectomised bull fitted with the MooCall collar and running with the cows. Grass is plentiful and we will be cutting 10ac of the outfarm in about three weeks because it’s gone past the point of grazing. We spread no fertiliser early in the year and are just following each grazing now with 2,000gal/ac of cattle slurry. Silage ground is getting 2.5 bags/ac of 18:6:12.

Declan Marren

THRIVE demonstration farm

All 140 yearlings were turned out two weeks ago. Ground conditions didn’t allow turnout any earlier. Grass growth has pushed on in the last 10 days too. The silage ground will be grazed for closing by the weekend. Although there is grass going ahead of stock on the grazing block, silage ground needed to be grazed to aid quality. The first cut last year was 76% DMD and it made all the difference to winter cattle performance. Having enough grazing power in the early months of grazing is difficult in a dairy calf-to-beef system and demand is only 24kg/ha/day currently. Eight to 10 acres of strong paddocks will be baled in the next week or so to keep quality in check ahead of stock.

Caroline O’Sullivan

Teagasc Curtins Farm, Cork

There are two days left in our first rotation and we have a cover of 1,250kg/ha on our first paddock grazed, with the next few paddocks not far behind at 1,200kg/ha and 1,100kg/ha. Growth has surpassed demand this week with a growth of 46kg/day being recorded. Demand lies at 36kg/day. Grass won’t be long getting out of hand. We plan to reseed a lot of ground this spring which will help raise the stocking rate and subsequently the demand. Our plan is to reseed paddocks that go strong by spraying them off and then cut them for silage and reseeding afterwards.

Daniel Rundle

Ardee, Co Louth

It was 4 March when we started grazing here and around 15 March when I got out day and night. I targeted grazing lower covers to get ground grazed and growing back. The dry weather the last two weeks gave me a great opportunity to graze all the heavy covers and we are now grazing covers of 1,500kg/ha. I walked the farm Monday and had 1,100kg back on the first paddock and planned to start the second rotation next Monday. However, with the burst in growth the last few days, I will walk the farm again Friday and more than likely start the second rotation Saturday. There are 70units of N out and breeding starts 10 May.

Cathal McAleer

Omagh, Co Tyrone

Growth has been slow but the farm has turned around this week. Hopefully magic day isn’t far away now. Silage is still in the diet to extend our first rotation for another 10 days as we only have a cover of 600kg back on the first paddock grazed at the moment. Forty units of 29-0-19 plus sulphur went out last week. 50% of the herd are heifers so they are milking well and we’re looking forward to getting them on a full grass diet soon. All cows tail-painted at the moment won’t record heats but anything not bulling after 21 days will be checked by the vet before the start of breeding.