Good grass growth rates due to the mild weather in recent weeks led farmers to plan for an extra few weeks grazing, but heavy rainfall and quickly deteriorating ground conditions have forced the hand of many into housing stock.

This has brought with it the heightened risk of pneumonia, as some stock have been housed wet. This, combined with the mild temperature, make the perfect conditions for pneumonia.

Where housing has taken place, it is best to delay weaning if not already done until it is cooler and animals are over the housing ordeal. Adding the stress of weaning in the current conditions would be asking for trouble in terms of a pneumonia outbreak risk.

Where ground conditions allow stock to remain at grass it should be noted that grass dry matter is going to have taken a significant hit in the past week due to constant and heavy rainfall.

That means there is less feeding in every bite of grass and, at this time of year, fibre is low in the sward so passage rates through the animal will be increased.

This means there is less time for the animal to absorb the nutrition from the grass as it moves through the digestive system.

For this reason it is a good idea to offer stock either a bale of straw, hay or poorer quality silage in order to boost the fibre in the diet.

Where this can be done on a farm roadway or stand-off area all the better, as it will save poaching around the feeder but in any case it should be offered to stock.

When a wet night comes you will see the intake of the roughage increase significantly as stock self-regulate their intake.

Farmers

Matthew Murphy – Newford Herd, Athenry

We have plenty of grass but conditions are deteriorating. The last of the finishing cattle were housed last week and the cows are in the process of being housed, with different batches coming in as they finish the paddocks they are grazing.

This lets us prioritise the remaining grass for this year’s weanlings.

The bull calves were weighed last week and we are happy with performance since weaning, with the bulls now averaging 360kg having been weaned at 322kg. They continue to get 1.5kg/day concentrate at grass.

So far 36 of the 40 year-and-a-half old heifers have been drafted for slaughter off grass with no meal supplementation. The average carcase weight is 290kg, with an average grade of R-3= and came into €1,476/head.

System Suckler to beef

Soil type Mostly dry

Farm cover (kg DM/ha) 673

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 18

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 16

Oisín Kennedy – Aclare, Co Sligo

Grazing came to a halt at the weekend for the cattle. Ground conditions were getting too difficult, and with a bad forecast for this week we made the decision to house everything.

There is grass to graze for another 7-10 days, but it will have to wait until spring.

We were creep grazing the calves into the multispecies swards but kept the cows out of it to avoid poaching. The last few paddocks weren’t grazed out as well due to ground conditions. We calve from 1 April so weaning is yet to start.

Once temperatures settle down we will start weaning the heaviest calves and the first calvers. On the home farm the ram went out to the ewes this week which should see lambing begin around 20 March.

System Suckler to beef & sheep

Soil type Heavy

Farm cover (kg DM/ha) 464

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) 11

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) 8

Dwayne Stanley – Thurles, Co Tipperary

Housing is in full swing here at the moment. By early next week it will just be the spring-born weanlings left at grass.

About 30% of our farm is low-lying wetter ground and it has been closed for nearly two weeks.

Some of the silage ground is being grazed currently but will be finished by the weekend. A dry block of 40ac should keep the weanlings out for another week or two.

Just two of the 76 autumn calving cows are left to calve. I started AI on 20 October and 13 cows have been bred up to Wednesday afternoon.

I will AI for two months and then clean up with the stock bulls for a month. I hope to have around 80 calving next autumn, while there are 42 in-calf for spring.

System Suckler & calf to beef

Soil type Variable

Farm cover (kg DM/ha) -

Growth (kg DM/ha/day) -

Demand (kg DM/ha/day) -