Grazing conditions getting difficult after rain

Some heavy rain hit parts of the country over the weekend and into the early parts of this week.

Conditions are starting to get a bit more challenging but overall, most land was able to take the rain that did come.

If it continues it will take good management to get around the last rotation without doing too much damage.

Cows should be on 12-hour breaks at a minimum to ensure good clean outs and to stop them going back over grazed ground and poaching it.

Average farm cover for this week should be around 850 kg/DM/ha on drier farms and 750kg/DM/ha on heavier farms.

If you’re dropping below this and getting through the last round too quickly, silage will be needed to fill the gap.

Silage

Buffer feeding silage directly before or after milking can make cows lazy and full. They wait for the easy feed and won’t work as hard when they do get back to the paddock to clean out grass covers.

Housing by night might be a better option if grass is very scarce – farm cover is falling very quickly and there’s a lot of silage needed.

If buffer feeding has to be done, feeding silage before milking and holding the cows for an hour after milking without silage will ensure they’re hungry going back to the paddock.

On/off grazing for three-hour intervals post-milking is also an option. Cows will eat 80-90% of the grass they need for that milking and there won’t be big paddock damage in that window.

Admittedly it’s a labour-intensive task, but one that works to maximise the utilisation of grass available.

Alan Darcy – Ardcroney, Co Tipperary

The cows are out full time on 12-hour allocations. They are currently getting 5kg of meal in the parlour and good-quality baled silage. We’re going into covers around 1,600/1,700kg DM/ha and they’re milking well. We’ve about 20% of the farm closed for the spring.

It’s a dry farm and overall ground condition is excellent. We’ll be planning to close up and be fully housed by the end of November. The farm cover has held well with decent growth rates.

We had zero-grazed grass coming in to the herd throughout September. This allowed us to build up a good cover which we need for the higher stocking rate.

Stocking rate (LU/ha) 3.75

Growth (kg/ha) 40

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 850

Yield (l/cow) 17.5

Fat (%) 5.03

Protein (%) 4.00

Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.63

Concentrates (kg/cow) 5

Niall O’Loughlin – Nurney, Co Kildare

We’re out full-time and hope to stay that way until the start of November, weather depending. We had taken off any cull cows and had been buffer feeding silage to build cover. We’ve pulled the silage now and this should help us to clean out the heavier covers a bit better.

The culls are all still housed and are getting 6kg of meal and silage, as well as being milked once a day. We’ll probably milk these on until the start of the new year. The cows are on 12-hour blocks with a back fence.

Re-growths are actually still remarkably strong for the time of year. We’d be hoping to stay out by day until the 20 November.

Stocking rate (LU/ha) 2.99

Growth (kg/ha) 59

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1253

Yield (l/cow) 16.8

Fat (%) 5.15

Protein (%) 4.1

Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.68

Concentrates (kg/cow) 5

Caroline O’Sullivan – Teagasc Moorepark, Co Cork

The cows are content at the moment and milking relatively well. They are on 12-hour allocations and going into covers of 1,600kg DM/ha. The clean outs are good so we’ll have quality grass coming back.

We’re about 40% through the final round and should have 60% grazed by the start of November. There’s a few reseeds that were already grazed that we’d like to get back into before closing fully.

There are six cull cows to go and we’ll be looking to start drying off some of the lighter heifers that aren’t yielding well by the middle of November. In the main, the heifers are still in very good condition.

Stocking rate (LU/ha) 2.12

Growth (kg/ha) 25

Average farm cover (kg/ha) 797

Yield (l/cow) 15.5

Fat (%) 5.84

Protein (%) 4.62

Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.67

Concentrates (kg/cow) 4