Grass growth under pressure on Co Louth BETTER farm

Willie Treacy

Co Louth

First-cut silage was harvested in early June. I cut 70 acres and it really bulked out in the final fortnight once the weather picked up.

Second-cut silage has been closed off with 45 acres to be harvested. The remaining 25 acres are coming back into the grazing rotation to ease the stocking pressure.

Second-cut silage received 2,300 gallons per acre of slurry and 75 units of nitrogen, plus 15 units of sulphur. Grazing ground got farmyard manure, as all remaining slurry went onto silage ground.

My land needs rain, as we seem to have missed most of the showers in the past week. Grass growth has been hit due to the moisture deficit and ground has become very hard. But at least I am able to utilise all available grass fully.

With a high stocking rate, there is little surplus grass. Therefore, I bought 130 round bales of hay from a neighbour and this will be used for feeding dry cows.

There are 55 autumn cows due to start calving in the next fortnight. They are tightly stocked on a bare paddock close to the yard. They will be calved outside unless they run into problems.

Minerals are being supplied through lick buckets and they got a bolus earlier this spring. Breeding has finished for the spring herd and there has been no heat activity for a while now, which is a good sign.

Last year’s spring bulls are being slaughtered at the moment. The first group killed averaged 380kg deadweight under 16 months.

Bulls are being offered ad-lib meal and good pit silage. There are still 30 to kill with some going this week. Last year’s autumn bulls weighed 400kg on 6 June.

I will do a few budgets on these cattle, but I think I will end up selling them to a feedlot rather than finish them myself.