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Farmers can have all the grass targets that they like but if the weather isn’t agreeable they are not worth a thing. That is the case at the moment as fierce heavy rain over the past 10 days, on top of an already wet autumn, has thrown a spanner in the autumn grazing works.
At the moment, all farms are extremely wet and many herds have been fully housed for periods over the past week.
Whether or not they will go back out grazing in 2017 depends on soil type. It’s probably game over for most heavy farms.
On drier farms, the forecast suggests that drier spells are coming which should allow cows back out, if even for a few hours a day.
All farmers can do is assess the conditions on their farm and make a judgement then. Who knows, November might come cold and dry and ground conditions might improve.
The key target was to have 60% to 70% of the farm grazed and closed by next Monday. Failure to hit this target isn’t the end of the world but it means that paddocks will have to be closed earlier than thought so as not to run down average farm cover.
At this stage, it is average farm cover that is key. The target for most farms is to stop grazing when the cover hits 600 or 700kg/ha in late November.
Some are closer to hitting this now than others.
The good thing is that growth rate is much higher than normal at 32kg/day so some farmers who are close to hitting their target can let it run down slightly below target and then close up, in the expectation that average farm cover will rise again once the cows come in.
Ideally, cows that are getting silage by night should have run out of feed for an hour or two before going out so as to give them an appetite before they go to grass. This is not to reduce their overall intake, more so to change their feeding behaviour to consume more in a shorter period.
Teagasc Curtins Farm
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.76
Growth rate (kg/day) 23
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 950
Yield (l/cow/day) 12.8
Fat % 5.62
Protein % 4.33
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.3
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1
Average farm cover dropped this week to 950kg due to poor growth. Our target for this week was 1,142kg. Pre-grazing covers are 1,800kg and we are allocating in 12-hour breaks. Utilisation was poor over last weekend due to difficult weather conditions, but things have improved this week.
Cows were housed last Thursday and Friday night due to heavy rainfall. We are back out full-time since last Saturday. To date, we have 52% of the farm closed. We will start to dry off low-BCS and high-SCC cows in the next 10 days.
Teagasc, Clonakilty
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.57
Growth rate (kg/day) 28
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1,052
Yield (l/cow/day) 13.1
Fat % 5.01
Protein % 4.09
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.19
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 1.5
We have had to feed a good bit of silage over the past few weeks as we were behind target in average farm cover. Between that and the weather we were inside for around eight nights over the last fortnight.
Cows are now back out on/off grazing but getting a good clean-out is very difficult. The silage gave them a bad habit. When they come inside they only get a kilo or two of silage and it runs out after an hour or so.
We have 46% of the farm grazed and it will be a challenge to get 60% grazed by next Monday.
Doonbeg, Clare
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.81
Growth rate (kg/day) 34
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 1,115
Yield (l/cow/day) 16.56
Fat % 4.69
Protein % 4.06
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.49
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 4
Cows are inside now full-time. I’d love to be able to let them back out again but I think it’s wishful thinking as land is saturated.
Only the weanling heifers are out and even they’re doing damage and utilisation is very poor.
But I have some very high covers of over 2,000kg/ha still so I think I have to get them down or else they’ll rot. It’s been very difficult here since the end of July.
On the plus side, cows are milking well and I’m well up on milk sold but I am feeding more meal than I’d like to. It’s been the worst autumn I can remember.
Teagasc Ballyhaise
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.96
Growth rate (kg/day) 28
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 970
Yield (l/cow/day) 12
Fat % 5.55
Protein % 4.10
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.19
Supplement fed (kg/cow/day) 3
We were in full-time over the weekend but have been back out full-time since then. We are grazing high covers of around 2,200kg and ground is testing, even though it is dry ground, but we are managing as best we can. If it gets too wet to graze we will just keep them in at night. I’m slow to go on/off grazing at this time of year as I think it’s too demanding on people in terms of time – I’ll happily do it in the spring though. We have 55% of the farm grazed, going on the first paddock being closed on 27 September.
Grass+ beef: good forecast can reduce silage pressure
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