It’s been a real year of swings and roundabouts, as we went from a dry February, a wet March and April to a dry May and first half of June. With the weather now broken for over three weeks, many second-cut crops have become fit for mowing. With some lighter first-cut crops and silage stocks depleted in spring, it might be on some farmers minds to take an area for a third cut. The week ahead is nothing to write home about, and any silage making will be a smash and grab effort I feel.

With growth still strong, if additional silage is required it is wise to keep on top of fertiliser and hope to get some surplus paddocks out for silage. Watery slurry spread with LESS is working well in these damp conditions on grazed paddocks, so it would also be a good time to get the last of the tanks emptied if slurry is not required to get back out after a second cut.

John Dunne, Portarlington, Co Offaly

Second-cut silage is about two weeks away, and we hope to get it harvested before it begins to head out. We delayed cutting first cut by about 10 days, and by the time we got slurry and fertiliser back out on to silage ground the weather broke and the rain came.

The home farm is high in P and K and is receiving slurry for maintenance of indexes, so we are only spreading straight N on this. The outfarm which is 10 miles away is lower in indexes, so a round of 18-6-12 is being spread this time. The showery weather is really suiting the farm as it’s quite dry. Grass quality is really good after having corrected it. Some of the paddocks at the end of this rotation might have to be mown out.

System: Suckler dairy calf to beef

Soil Type: Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 892

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): 57

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 38

Trevor Boland, Dromard, Co Sligo

The last two weeks of growth have been very good, with the combination of heat and rain really pushing on grass. Growth has been ahead of other years right through, with 6.8t DM/ha grown to date, 0.5t DM/ha ahead of last year. Second-cut silage is ready for mowing, and I’m just waiting for a break in the weather. Some paddocks were taken out in long-term silage recently, which has bumped up demand. These will be mown in two to three weeks. I’m starting the second half of the year with good, clean paddocks. Stocking rate was increased through mowing out the worst-quality swards and getting cattle to graze down tight. I will be building covers now for autumn-calving sucklers, who will begin calving in about three weeks.

System: Suckler to beef

Soil Type: Mostly dry

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 1,011

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): 68

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 57

Ken Gill, Clonbollogue, Co Offaly

Our pea and barley cover crop that was sown with the red clover and grass mix is ready to cut, if we got the weather to get in with the mower in the next week or two. I got a second cut on the red clover silage sward, of 71 bales in 12.5 acres, which I was happy with. This has received slurry again in preparation for the next cut.

The bounce back from the drought was slower, with no chemical N spread, as the clover seemed to have to begin growing before it got grass back growing. We are just back into our normal rotation with the cattle as growth has recovered. Bar one or two paddocks, the quality of grass is very good. I will be preparing the winter forage crops for sowing in the next month.

System: Organic beef

Soil Type: Mostly dry

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 638

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): 31

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 27