Farmer writes: Silage season hampered by soft ground

Four players from my local Gaelic football team, Dromard, were involved with the Longford team that travelled to the hallowed turf of Croke Park over a week ago to take on Dublin, the Leinster and All-Ireland champions elect (apparently!).

As I sat in the Hogan Stand and looked out at this turf in the northern part of Dublin city, I couldn’t help but think that it bears a similarity with the land in this part of county Longford – the volume of grass that is, not the hallowed nature of it or the firmness for that matter!

Ground here is still soft in places after lots of rain in May and the first week of June, and the quantity of ‘white fields’ to be seen is well behind other years at this stage. Some silage has been harvested in drier areas, but it will be late this year around here. I am optimistic as I look at the long range weather forecast, which paints a picture of warmer temperatures and less rain for the next week. Here’s hoping!

Silage

There is the potential to harvest early at a lower yield, therefore achieving better quality. Harvesting silage which will have high dry matter digestibility (DMD), in the region of 73 – 75%, is important for milk yield in the suckler cows, and therefore high weight gain in the autumn born suckler calves.

The early, good quality silage will be prioritised to the dairy and suckler cows in order for the suckler cows to meet this milk yield and keep them in good body condition for breeding. It is also needed to keep milk yield up for the later calving dairy cows and to maintain body condition throughout the dry period.

Twelve acres of the first cut silage ground will join the grazing platform for the dairy cows following silage harvesting and the aim is to get this into the rotation as quick as possible. When this enters the platform, paddocks will start to be taken out for bales at intervals when growth is strong and covers start to exceed desired pre-grazing yield.

Grass

It is important that farmers’ measure and budget grass during the year, and especially this time of the year when it is looking like grass will start to kick on. I like to know exactly what grass is ahead of me so decisions can be made in terms of removing paddocks for silage or extra supplementation of concentrates when grass is scarce. A pig farmer will know exactly how much concentrates are in their meal bins, I want to know how much grass is available on the paddocks.