Grass growth continues in a positive trend, with warm weather and good soil moisture levels resulting in good growth conditions.
Some of this growth could also be aided by the large amounts of clover that are now present in many swards.
However, although growth is good currently, it will start to slow down, so farmers should not be getting ahead of themselves and thinking this is going to last.
We are in autumn and growth will begin to tail off, so ensuring that average farm cover (AFC) is building is vital.
Grass growth
The latest figures from PastureBase Ireland show current growth rates of 55kg of dry matter (DM)/ha for Leinster, 55kg of DM/ha for Munster, 56kg of DM/ha for Connacht and 52kg of DM/ha for Ulster.
There is a slight decrease across the country for the predicted growth rates for the coming days: 51kg of DM/ha for Leinster, 52kg of DM/ha for Munster, 47kg of DM/ha for Connacht and 45kg of DM/ha for Ulster.
Rotation length
The building of AFC is underway on farms and the aim over the next month or so is to increase rotation length to around 40 days.
AFC
(kg DM/ha)AFC
(kg DM/ha)AFC
(kg DM/ha)Rotation length
(days)Stocking rate, LU/ha 2.5 3.0 3.5 September 1 750 990 980 30 Mid-September 1,000-1,100 1,100 1,200 35 October 1 1,000 1,150 1,175 40
There are a number of ways that farmers can achieve this, but they are essentially decreasing the stocking rate on the milking platform.
This can be achieved by introducing more land, such as silage ground, which should decrease demand and allow covers to build.
It may also be time to start looking at moving on cull cows; although they may still be producing milk, they are being culled for a reason.
Removing them from the herd reduces demand and all this means that if silage needs to be fed in the next month or so less will be used as there will be fewer mouths to feed.