Make hay while the sun shines as the saying goes and the same can be said for grazing – graze when conditions allow.

A number of farmers I spoke to this week with stock out have said they take every opportunity to get out to grass, with one farmer saying: “I might be feeding silage at the end of March if the weather is bad so I might as well graze while I can”.

Where grazing is happening and ground conditions are suitable to do so, try to graze paddocks quickly and move on to the next area.

The real benefit of grazing early is to nip off the old grass that has built up over winter and encourage the sward to kick on and start growing.

Spreading a few cattle out over a big area will not achieve a good graze out, and so the benefit to the sward will not be the same.

However, there is no point in doing damage to ground either, so only graze if suitable to do so. As a rough rule of thumb, try to have stock moving from a grazed out paddock at least twice a week. If the grazing infrastructure allows for more than this then all the better.

Farmers

Wesley Browne – Dunraymond, Co Monaghan

Calving kicked off last week and there are seven calved at this stage, four of which were on Tuesday.

I expect it to get quite busy for the next few weeks, 65% of the herd are due to calve in the first four weeks. Cows and calves go straight out to grass once everything is ok and the calf is up and sucking.

I find they are much healthier and more content outside. For this reason, no other stock go out early, I need to have grass for the cows.

Housing started on 10 October last autumn so there are decent covers on the farm currently but it will all be needed. I spread 18 units/acre of urea last week given how good conditions currently are. Slurry will be applied once I get a sufficient amount of ground grazed.

System Suckler to beef

Soil type Heavy

Farm cover (kg DM/ha) 1,096

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 6

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 15

Shaun Diver – Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly

Growth has been good, especially on the out farm where there was a cover of grass carried over winter.

The wetter silage ground which was grazed into December and January with the ewes received 2,600gal/acre slurry about 10 days ago. We still have slurry in the yard which will be spread once we get some ground grazed off.

We have 36 cows calved and things are progressing nicely. There has been no real burst of calving but it is consistent, which is easier to deal with.

Nine cows and their calves are out at grass, while 14 of the yearling heifers were let out last week to covers of 1,100-1,300kgDM/ha. I plan to spread just under half a bag of urea/acre on some of the grazing ground later this week.

System Suckler to beef

Soil type Variable

Farm cover (kg DM/ha) 632

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 5

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 11

Ger McSweeney – Millstreet, Co Cork

We have 28 cows calved at this point and 10 of these are out at grass. The yearling heifers have been out full-time since 1 February. This has taken the pressure off silage, housing, and even labour.

Typically I would have them out by day and in at night and maybe not out at all if conditions were poor.

They grazed a couple of light covers initially to get into the habit again, and then I put them on a cover of 1,900kgDM/ha which should have been grazed in autumn, but they would have trampled it into the ground. They did a super job on it now, and utilisation was excellent.

No fertiliser has been spread yet, I’d like to see growth a little higher before I’d go. Last week the soil temperature was 7.9°C.

System Suckler to beef

Soil type Variable

Farm cover (kg DM/ha) 681

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 6

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 13