After months of continuous rain on farms across the country there has finally been a letup. A few dry days coming together should make a big difference to ground that’s being trying but struggling to dry over recent weeks.
Now that the window of opportunity has come, it needs to be made use of. The majority of farms are now behind target for area grazed on the farm.
This is not the end of the world, and in reality it just means the start of the second rotation might have to be delayed slightly.
The key now is to try and make up some ground. That means sending cows to grass twice a day as much as possible. On/off grazing for three-hour bouts will be a farmer’s best friend here to avoid damaging paddocks while still getting grass grazed.
For cows that haven’t been out much up to this point the first few days may be difficult. Cows are likely to graze paddocks poorly or do a bit of walking as they get into the habit of grazing again, but it’s worth sticking at it.
Demand
Keep demand high by lowering meal feeding levels and restricting silage intake until after the evening grazing if it’s necessary.
This way cows will be hungry going out to grass and will get through area faster. Strip wires and back fences need to be used to divide paddocks up, and grass allocations should be calculated out to make sure there’s not too much grass wasted.
This is the perfect opportunity to get out with fertiliser. As most farms missed a spread in February, it will be worth going with a heavier rate this week.
The aim is to have 60 units of nitrogen/acre spread by the start of April. Two spreads will be required over the next month to achieve this.
Spreading three-quarters of a bag of protected urea per acre now will be the equivalent to over 30 units of nitrogen. The same will be required at the end of March.
Ideally, slurry should be going to silage ground now. If this isn’t the case, choose paddocks on the milking platform that were most recently grazed with very light covers below 400kg DM/ha.
Get cows grazing twice a day if at all possible. On/off grazing should be used.Fertiliser needs to go out this week where ground conditions are suitable. Spreading 3/4 of a bag of protected urea/acre will be equivalent to over 30 units of N.If spreading slurry, choose paddocks most recently grazed. In most cases it’s only a month until these will be grazed again.Aidan Lawless – Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford
Yesterday was the first time we got out to grass, almost a month behind normal. We’d usually aim to have 30% of the farm grazed by now. It’s just a matter of readjusting for now and grazing as much as possible.
So far, we have 80% of the spring herd calved, so demand is high and we’ll move through area quickly now. Our average farm cover is high but with the autumn calvers grazing as well, we would always need that bit more cover anyway.
Some of the heaviest covers of over 2,000kg DM/ha will likely be pulled out for an early cut of silage in a few weeks to get back in line with target average farm cover.
Stocking Rate (lu/ha) -
Growth Rate (kg/day) 10
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,500
Yield (l/cow) 26
Fat% 4.78
Protein% 3.56
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 2.23
Concentrates 5
Eoin McCormack – Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork
We have 145 cows calved with 50 still to go. The cows are out day and night on/off grazing. We have just over 18% of the platform grazed so we’re behind target but not massively.
The fertiliser started to go out this week at a rate of 23 units of protected urea/acre across the milking platform.
Slurry is going out whenever we get a chance but ground conditions are still challenging for tanks. Average farm cover is on the high side at the moment at 1,255 kg DM/ha. We’ve had good growth rates the last couple of weeks, but with demand for grass increasing we should be able to get through it fairly well.
Stocking Rate (lu/ha) -
Growth Rate (kg/day) 16
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,255
Yield (l/cow) 24
Fat% 5
Protein% 3.75
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.96
Concentrates 3.5
Oisin Gill – Hollymount, Co Mayo
The cows are out by day since 20 February and we’ve just over 10% of the milking platform area grazed. It’s a fairly dry and free-draining farm so they’ve been grazing well with only some small bits of damage done.
We don’t mind that, it’s the risk you have to take to get grass into them. Of the 200 cows, we have 120 calved since the start of calving in the middle of February.
Cows are being allocated 6kg of grass per grazing. The target is to have 30% of the farm grazed by next week. Around 15% of the farm has gotten slurry to this point, and the rest has been covered with half a bag of protected urea/acre.
Stocking Rate (lu/ha) -
Growth Rate (kg/day) -
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,050
Yield (l/cow) 20
Fat% 5
Protein% 3.75
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.8
Concentrates 4
After months of continuous rain on farms across the country there has finally been a letup. A few dry days coming together should make a big difference to ground that’s being trying but struggling to dry over recent weeks.
Now that the window of opportunity has come, it needs to be made use of. The majority of farms are now behind target for area grazed on the farm.
This is not the end of the world, and in reality it just means the start of the second rotation might have to be delayed slightly.
The key now is to try and make up some ground. That means sending cows to grass twice a day as much as possible. On/off grazing for three-hour bouts will be a farmer’s best friend here to avoid damaging paddocks while still getting grass grazed.
For cows that haven’t been out much up to this point the first few days may be difficult. Cows are likely to graze paddocks poorly or do a bit of walking as they get into the habit of grazing again, but it’s worth sticking at it.
Demand
Keep demand high by lowering meal feeding levels and restricting silage intake until after the evening grazing if it’s necessary.
This way cows will be hungry going out to grass and will get through area faster. Strip wires and back fences need to be used to divide paddocks up, and grass allocations should be calculated out to make sure there’s not too much grass wasted.
This is the perfect opportunity to get out with fertiliser. As most farms missed a spread in February, it will be worth going with a heavier rate this week.
The aim is to have 60 units of nitrogen/acre spread by the start of April. Two spreads will be required over the next month to achieve this.
Spreading three-quarters of a bag of protected urea per acre now will be the equivalent to over 30 units of nitrogen. The same will be required at the end of March.
Ideally, slurry should be going to silage ground now. If this isn’t the case, choose paddocks on the milking platform that were most recently grazed with very light covers below 400kg DM/ha.
Get cows grazing twice a day if at all possible. On/off grazing should be used.Fertiliser needs to go out this week where ground conditions are suitable. Spreading 3/4 of a bag of protected urea/acre will be equivalent to over 30 units of N.If spreading slurry, choose paddocks most recently grazed. In most cases it’s only a month until these will be grazed again.Aidan Lawless – Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford
Yesterday was the first time we got out to grass, almost a month behind normal. We’d usually aim to have 30% of the farm grazed by now. It’s just a matter of readjusting for now and grazing as much as possible.
So far, we have 80% of the spring herd calved, so demand is high and we’ll move through area quickly now. Our average farm cover is high but with the autumn calvers grazing as well, we would always need that bit more cover anyway.
Some of the heaviest covers of over 2,000kg DM/ha will likely be pulled out for an early cut of silage in a few weeks to get back in line with target average farm cover.
Stocking Rate (lu/ha) -
Growth Rate (kg/day) 10
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,500
Yield (l/cow) 26
Fat% 4.78
Protein% 3.56
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 2.23
Concentrates 5
Eoin McCormack – Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork
We have 145 cows calved with 50 still to go. The cows are out day and night on/off grazing. We have just over 18% of the platform grazed so we’re behind target but not massively.
The fertiliser started to go out this week at a rate of 23 units of protected urea/acre across the milking platform.
Slurry is going out whenever we get a chance but ground conditions are still challenging for tanks. Average farm cover is on the high side at the moment at 1,255 kg DM/ha. We’ve had good growth rates the last couple of weeks, but with demand for grass increasing we should be able to get through it fairly well.
Stocking Rate (lu/ha) -
Growth Rate (kg/day) 16
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,255
Yield (l/cow) 24
Fat% 5
Protein% 3.75
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.96
Concentrates 3.5
Oisin Gill – Hollymount, Co Mayo
The cows are out by day since 20 February and we’ve just over 10% of the milking platform area grazed. It’s a fairly dry and free-draining farm so they’ve been grazing well with only some small bits of damage done.
We don’t mind that, it’s the risk you have to take to get grass into them. Of the 200 cows, we have 120 calved since the start of calving in the middle of February.
Cows are being allocated 6kg of grass per grazing. The target is to have 30% of the farm grazed by next week. Around 15% of the farm has gotten slurry to this point, and the rest has been covered with half a bag of protected urea/acre.
Stocking Rate (lu/ha) -
Growth Rate (kg/day) -
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,050
Yield (l/cow) 20
Fat% 5
Protein% 3.75
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.8
Concentrates 4
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