Average grass growth has been stunted over the last week with the heatwave, but with rain on the forecast there is no fear of any droughts.

During the week, average grass growth dropped back to the mid-60s in terms of kg of dry matter (DM) per ha.

However, with average demand remaining around 55kg DM/ha, the majority of farmers are still growing more than what the herd is eating, leading to a lot of surplus bales still being made.

Over the next week, scattered showers have been forecast which will push grass growth well into the 70-80kg DM/ha region.

There was also a good few thunderstorms during the week gone, meaning there was plenty of nitrogen in the air, helping to push grass on even further.

This means grassland management needs to be kept strict, ensuring high quality grass is kept in front of the herd while silage reserves continue to build.

Grass growth

According to PastureBase Ireland, average farm covers (AFC) were sitting at 673kg DM/ha last week.

Pre-grazing yields are down to 1,506kg DM/ha, slightly off the target of 1,400kg DM/ha, however with average protein still being recorded at 3.51%, the slight overshot does not seem to be doing much harm.

The typical diet for the week was recorded at 15.5kg of grass with 3.5kg of meal, which is relatively high considering the grass ahead of cows on most farms.

The extra meal being fed is possibly adding to these higher pre-grazing yields and poorer residuals.

Farmers should try and allocate at least 18-19kg of grass in the cow's diet at current growth rates and then try to reduce meal feeding gradually without impacting on performance.

36% of PastureBase recording farms had a surplus last week, with AFCs of 705kg DM/ha and pre-grazing yields of 1583kg DM/ha.

These farms need to ensure concentrate feeding is brought back as feeding higher rates of meal can displace approximately 0.5kg of grass DM (2kg increase in meal fed).

28% of were under-target with AFCs of 560kg DM/ha while 36% of farms were on target with AFCs of 625kg DM/ha.

Rotation length at current growth rates must be held at 20-21 days while holding AFC at 160-200kg DM/livestock unit (LU).

Ensure to keep on-top of fertiliser application at this stage of the season, putting on what has been taken off.

Although remember to keep a minimum of 30 units/ac of chemical nitrogen in reserve for August to allow you build covers for the final rotation.