Farmer Writes: Supplementing lower grass energy with crimped wheat

The milkers are being allocated 1/44th of the farm each day and I am back-fencing to protect the ground. Last weekend’s heavy rain hasn’t caused problems except for a few wet patches. My ground is dry but the surface smears easily in wet weather.

In August I had been moving the cows during the day if they had needed to go back into a field to clean it out. The cows quickly learned that they would be moved as soon as grass got scarce and would gather at the gap. Only possible to get away with in dry weather.

Since I have moved to 24-hour breaks, the herd is far more settled: once-a-day (OAD) grass allocation to match OAD milking.

With grass energy always dropping at this time of year, I introduced crimped wheat, keeping it simple at first by just feeding it straight. I am feeding 2.5kg, which at 30% moisture is the equivalent of 2kg rolled wheat. I am also now feeding silage, with the volume depending on weather and grass availability.

Local wheat

I buy in the wheat from a local tillage farmer. The crop was cut and delivered on 2 September and crimped the following day. Because of the short weather window, my supplier organised two combines and two trailers. Despite the late spring, the grain was nice and plump and perfect for crimping. Since then, the difficult harvest has gone from bad to worse.

I grew my last crop of spring barley on my home farm in 2000. Part of the reason for dropping tillage was to simplify my system. The second reason tillage was dropped was that I was finding it increasingly difficult to deal with fungal diseases from coastal fog, despite all the extra expensive sprays.

Modern grain varieties are being developed for places much drier than what we are accustomed to

I am getting the impression that modern grain varieties are being developed for places much drier than what we are accustomed to in southwest Ireland. They also seem to take longer to ripen, pushing the harvest into shorter September days.

If cereal plant breeders are looking for a challenge I suggest we need a diverse range to cope with a diverse range of climates and soils.

Don’t let me start on greening rules. Diversity is good but maybe there is a good reason why some crops aren’t being grown in an area. Coconuts in Costa del west Cork anybody?

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