The warmer weather has improved grass growth rates in most parts of the country, which was certainly a long time coming.
The last few weeks have seen a mixture of rainfall and sunny spells accumulating, leaving farmers and their cows in a more comfortable position.
Grass growth is still well behind a normal year, but farmers have learned to adjust to this over the last number of weeks by feeding extra supplements in an effort to extend the grazing rotation.
Very few farmers seem to be feeding extra supplementation in the form of silage at the moment, with grass growth staying ahead of demand.
These improved growth rates will give farmers a chance to build up more fodder supplies, as there has been very few opportunities throughout the growing season.
Grass growth
This week’s grass growth rates averaged across the country at 59kg dry matter (DM)/ha with a demand at 51kg DM/ha, with the south-east of the country experiencing lower than average growth rates, according to PastureBase Ireland.
The average diet across the country is currently 15kg DM of grass with 3.5kg of meal being fed, followed by a small proportion (0.5kg) of silage still being fed.
The average cover/livestock unit (LU) is 225kg DM/LU, with average farm covers at 725kg DM/ha and pre-grazing yields at 1,511kg DM/ha.
So overall, dairy farms on average seem to be in a decent grass position in regards to optimal average farm covers and pre-grazing yields.
Farms that are not overly stocked should take the opportunity to take out paddocks for surplus bales to correct stemmy, poor grass quality, if their cover/LU is above 220kg DM/LU.
The poor grass quality is still making the headlines, as even though grass growth rates have returned, the plant seems to be still under stress, causing it to shoot out into stem very early.
The aim during this time of year should be preventing the grass plant going into the reproductive stage and stemming out. This is done through targeting an optimal rotation length and correcting paddocks that have gone too far.
If growth rates are there and your average farm cover (AFC) is optimal, correcting grass quality through cutting for bales is ideal.
If this is not possible, correcting the quality through topping post-grazing should be done.
A rotation length of 21 to 25 days should be targeted with an AFC of over 600kg DM/ha, ideally.
To make quick and prompt decisions around grass quality issues and which paddocks need to be grazed next, the farm should be walked every five days at least.