Wesley Browne September/October update

Grassland

• Grazing Heavy covers in September
• Above average growth rates
• Fertiliser purchased for 2023
• 2 loads of lime applied

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Performance

• Weighing of 2022 weanlings
• 15^th October – cows and weanlings housed
• Very happy with the silage results!

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Grassland

The last of the slurry was applied in early September before the rain and grass growth rates jumped to 70kgs/DM/ha .  The average farm cover near the end of September was 917kgs/DM/ha with 25 days of grass ahead (see picture below)

Given the soil type and farm location on average  housing takes place by mid October . The challenge in September was to get these heavy covers grazed off relatively quickly. While the weather did change in October with heavier amounts of rain- the cows were kept out until mid October and good graze outs where achieved on drier ground.  Cows and calves were given 3 day allocations and the heavier parts of the farm were grazed in late September when ground conditions were very good. The drier sections of the farm were left to be grazed in October. However, by the third week  of October all stocked had to be housed due to continuous rain and poor ground conditions.

2 loads of lime were spread in late September and 4 ton of urea has been purchased for 2023. The urea cost €920/tonne.

Performance

The weanlings born in 2022 were weighed in mid October.

While the heifers are on target at  252kgs at 200days the bulls are behind their target weight by 17kgs. The bulls are now housed and are on 75% DMD silage plus 2 kgs of meal.

3 silage samples were taken and overall the results are very good;

The high quality may silage will be fed to all the weanlings while the summer silage will be fed to the cows. The cows are in very good condition at housing BCS 3 and even with the summer silage of 69.6%DMD they might need to be restricted to ensure that they don’t get overfat.