It certainly wasn’t an easy week for grazing, that’s for sure. Waking up to heavy rain across parts of the country last Sunday morning was a stark reminder of how challenging dairy farming can be. However, it’s important to stay motivated in times like these. The farmer over the ditch from you is facing the same question: how will I feed my cows today? When torrential rain like this hits, the only option is to keep the cows in the shed. Fortunately, by the afternoon, the rain had stopped and conditions began to dry up again. At this time of year, the key focus should be ensuring cows get at least one grass allocation per day.
It certainly wasn’t an easy week for grazing, that’s for sure. Waking up to heavy rain across parts of the country last Sunday morning was a stark reminder of how challenging dairy farming can be. However, it’s important to stay motivated in times like these. The farmer over the ditch from you is facing the same question: how will I feed my cows today?
When torrential rain like this hits, the only option is to keep the cows in the shed. Fortunately, by the afternoon, the rain had stopped and conditions began to dry up again. At this time of year, the key focus should be ensuring cows get at least one grass allocation per day.
Spring 2024 was very tough, but more rain has fallen this February in the south to-date. Moorepark recorded 152.5mm of rain so far this month, up nearly 30mm from last year’s 124.7mm. Surprisingly, some areas have had less rainfall than this time last year – Gurteen, for example, recorded 65.2mm less than this time last year, based on Met Éireann monthly data.
Looking ahead, the forecast from Met Éireann is more promising. While some showers are expected, drier conditions should allow for a return to grazing.
Grass demand is rising, with over 50-60% of cows now calved on many farms. As intake per cow increases, those calved for a month now require a daily feed intake of around 16 kg DM.
With their full intake not reaching peak until week six or seven post-calving.
After accounting for meal and silage, grass allowances should be around 8-10kg per cow, per day.
Swardwatch
Use temporary fences and avoid going back over areas already grazed, using back fences and spur roads. Heavier soils farmers will be restricted to grazing dry fields, but try and graze low covers if at all possible, to increase the area being graze per day. You should have 30% grazed by 1 March, or ASAP.Important to get nitrogen spread if you haven’t any spread to-date.Andrew Gow, Murroe, Co Limerick
So far, we’ve grazed 20% of the farm. During the good weather two weeks ago, we managed to get through some of the wetter paddocks. However, with the recent unsettled conditions, we’ve switched to grazing the drier areas. Cows are being allocated 10-11kg of grass daily, split over one or two grazings.
Most of the milking platform has been treated with 23 units of protected urea with sulphur, while the remaining areas have received 2,500 gallons of slurry per acre.
This spring has been particularly challenging due to an early outbreak of rotavirus in the calves. However, despite the setback, we haven’t lost a calf to it yet.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha):2.5
Growth Rate (kg/day):10
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha):890
Yield (l/cow):17.5
Fat%:5.08
Protein%:3.8
Milk Solids (kg/cow):1.6
Concentrates:3
John and Brendan Walsh, Cahir, Co Tipperary
Up until last Wednesday, it had been an exceptional spring, with cows grazing day and night. However, over the past week, we’ve had to scale back to one grazing per day. So far, 75% of the cows have calved and 25% of the platform has been grazed. The plan is to push that to 40% before introducing buffer-feeding to slow the rotation.
We applied 23 units of protected urea over three weeks ago, while slurry was targeted at lower covers. Some paddocks will receive no chemical nitrogen for the year, but will receive slurry post-grazing. One of these paddocks has already bounced back with 350kg DM/ha of growth.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha):2.6
Growth Rate (kg/day):10
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha):905
Yield (l/cow):25
Fat%:4.88
Protein%:3.55
Milk Solids (kg/cow): 2.17
Concentrates:3
Micheal McDonnell, Curraghboy, Co Roscommon
So far, 48% of the herd has calved, with the first calf arriving on 4 February. Cows are currently grazing the drier parts of the farm, and while we’ve marked one or two paddocks, we’ve accepted that some damage is inevitable, particularly around the gaps. Good grazing infrastructure with multiple access points in paddocks has been a big help during wet conditions. Cows are on once-a-day milking, but in the past few days, cell count has risen slightly. To stay ahead of any issues, we’ll return to twice-a-day milking before the week is out. No nitrogen has been spread yet, but I plan to apply 30 units of chemical nitrogen across the platform.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha): 2.07
Growth Rate (kg/day) : 8
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha): 740
Yield (l/cow) :23
Fat% :5.7
Protein% : 4.15
Milk Solids (kg/cow) :2.33
Concentrates:5
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