GrowthWatch: Attention turning to first-cut silage

By Teagasc’s Seán Cummins and James Fitzgerald

The focus on the Teagasc Green Acres Calf to Beef Programme farms in terms of grassland management has switched to silage harvesting, with an aim of having all first cuts completed by May 24.

The importance of silage quality – whether that is from pit, bales or surpluses – cannot be underestimated for calf-to-beef systems; no ‘passenger’ animals are present on farm to consume silage of poorer quality.

Calf-to-beef systems require high-quality silage of 72-74% DMD (dry matter digestibility), which is a key factor in achieving the desired levels of animal performance and reducing feed costs over the winter months.

The map (below) which details the participants in the Teagasc Green Acres Calf to Beef Programme is interactive.

Hover your cursor over the farmer’s name to see information relating to: growth; demand; farm cover; and stocking rate for each individual farm. If you are viewing this map on a phone or tablet, just click the name of the farmer to see the details.

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When silage quality falls to a sub-optimal level, increased levels of concentrate supplementation are required in order to achieve the targeted average daily gains for weanlings, steers and finishing cattle.

The expense of this increased meal feeding is a significant cost to the system.

Grass is booming with a growth rate of 110kg DM/ha recorded over the past seven days. Demand is currently running at 62kg DM/ha, so we are in a position of surplus grass.

We started taking out surplus bales two weekends ago and 20% of the grazing paddocks have been cut so far. A further 5% will be taken out to coincide with pit silage this week.

Any ground where surplus bales have been removed has received either 18-6-12 or slurry to replenish off-takes. All of the grazing ground has received 20 units of sulphur (S) at this stage and we will be moving to straight nitrogen (N), with the exception of paddocks taken for surplus bales, from here on in.

I’m currently running three grazing groups, with bulls, heifers and calves. The bull ground will have received 100 units of N before the close of this week, the heifer ground – which is later and wasn’t suitable for an early application of N – will be brought up to 65 units and the calf ground will be topped up to 60 units this week.

I am using Pasturebase and walking the home block weekly as a means of keeping grass quality as high as I can. The spring-born calves are all weaned and turned out to this block, so keeping really good grass in front of them is a major priority of mine.

I have 96 calves and 17 older cattle grazing this block at the moment. The calves are receiving up on 2kg of meal as they adjust to their new outdoor environment and so they are only beginning to get an appetite for grass.

The older cattle are being used to mop up after the calves and I have cut and baled some paddocks to keep the grass from getting out of control.

Grass growth and demand are balancing out at approximately 50kg DM/ha/day for each day this week. This is down from a growth rate of 73kg DM/ha/day last week which confirmed my suspicion that a bit of rain is needed to kick on growth.

I will be cutting my first-cut silage in a weeks’ time weather permitting and I will most likely have surplus grass on the grazing ground that I can bale along with it.