Dancing in the downpours on Tullamore Farm

Like many other midlands farms, Tullamore Farm was crying out for rain over the last number of weeks with minimum amounts falling since the end of May.

Since 2018, it’s been a regular occurrence to have a few weeks where the farm has experienced very low levels of rainfall. This affects different parts of the farm in different ways, with some of the peaty soils around the yard area being better able to cope with lower rainfall amounts.

The drier, sandy soils on the outfarm in Cloonagh are the first to dry out. This impacts management, with farm manager Shaun Diver learning from the last few years in terms of how to adapt to the prevailing conditions.

“We are sort of waiting for it to happen to be honest now from May onwards.

“We would be watching the weather tight and making our decisions then. We had a good May in terms of grass growth and we were taking out strong paddocks for silage but that all stopped from mid-May onwards.

“While these heavier covers are a lot less attractive in terms of quality, they do hold the cows up for a few days just in terms of taking them longer to get through them. Taking out these heavy covers for bales in a time of drought just doesn’t work as it takes too long for it come back in to the rotation.

That will impact quality for the next round but you have to deal with what’s in front of you and that’s how we cope. The farm dropped to 41DM/ha of grass growth last week, which was 14kg below the demand figure of 55kg/DM/ha/day.

Average farm cover is running at 527 kg/DM/ha, with just 10 days currently ahead of stock.

This is expected to turn around pretty quickly with over 25ml of rain falling last weekend on the farm.

First-cut silage is in with 70 round bales of hay also made from a few paddocks which had gone beyond grazing.

About 50 acres received 23 units/acre of protected urea in the last week

It was looking likely that this could have been fed back to stock if the rain didn’t arrive this weekend.

Five acres of red clover silage were also made last week. Second-cut fertiliser was also spread late last week before the weekend’s rain. Second-cut silage fields had already received 2,600 gallons/acre of cattle slurry from the bull beef shed. This was applied via a trailing shoe slurry tanker.

Multispecies swards

The multispecies performed better during the last three weeks when the farm wasn’t receiving rain.

This sward was put in in May 2022 with a view to being able to deal with drought conditions better.

This 5ac plot got 2,600 gallons/acre of cattle slurry in February and hasn’t got any fertiliser since. Cows and calves, along with ewes and lambs, are grazing the multispecies paddock this week.

This is the fourth time this paddock has been grazed in 2023.

The challenge has now moved from keeping enough grass ahead of stock to trying to bring back in some quality into swards.

Fertiliser was the first stage in this process to try to bring some leaf back into the sward.

About 50 acres received 23 units/acre of protected urea in the last week. One of the first things a grass plant will do when under moisture stress is push out a seed head and this obviously decreases grazing quality.

Topping some of the paddocks that had very heavy covers when grazed after the next grazing is a priority including taking out some of the heavier covers once the farm gets its head above water again.

Shaun said: “Looking at the forecast, there is some rain forecast for the end of this week, so we should be good for decent grass growth again. It won’t take long to get back on track.”

Another six to eight bulls will be drafted for slaughter on Friday. Bulls continue to perform well with the hot conditions not having any major impact on intakes.

Price on the other hand isn’t as positive, with the latest quote of €5/kg meaning the bull option will be questioned again on Tullamore Farm from 2023 onwards. Heifers were pregnancy scanned last week with conception to the first serve of sexed semen coming back at 50% already stated.

Breeding activity across the herd has slowed down as the bull continues to run alongside the batch of heifers which are cleaning off topped fields at the moment.

By the end of this week, the bull will be removed and turned out with the cows for three weeks to mop up.

Shaun said: “Cattle are very content at the moment and are performing well despite the high temperatures and shortage of grass. We are aiming to weigh our cows and calves at the beginning of July.”

The sheep are also performing well despite the poorer quality and less palatable grass available at the moment.

“Given where the price is currently at we went for a pull of lambs this week. We might be a little lighter in weights than other years but we don’t want to miss the current lamb prices.”

Lambs born to yearling hoggets were vaccinated for clostridial disease last week with all these lambs receiving a dose for coccidiosis as well. The main crop of lambs got a dose for coccidiosis at the beginning of May. The lambs suckling hoggets have been receiving about 300g/day of creep feed over the past few weeks which will drive on growth. Lamb pellets are coming in at €480/tonne.