27th September 2024

Farmer Update: John Galvin

This has been a very challenging year for grass growth on our farm due to weather conditions, however I am still happy that we have sufficient fodder in the yard for a normal winter, and have a 4th cut still to complete on the outside block which will act as our buffer.  Farm cover is slightly behind where we would like so we are zero grazing from the outside block to supplement the diet.  Cows are still milking well and are doing 1.9 kgMS/day, although ration levels are high at 6kg.  Scanning is complete with 8% of cows and 1 out of 20 heifers not in calf.  We will milk on NIC cows for now, and will review again later in the autumn depending on fodder and slurry storage supply.   We are looking forward to hosting the Joint Programme farm walk on Thursday, 3rd of October.

Advisor Update: Jerry O'Brien

Grass growth on farms has improved slightly over the past week. Now heading for October we are continuing the building phase on grass for next spring.  Continue to focus on keeping 15-20 kg DM/ha/day difference between growth and demand to build AFC.  The farm must be set up for a minimum of a 30 day rotation.  It is important to fill the feed gap with meal and/or silage to hold this rotation at 30 days. 30 ha farm - 1 ha per day grazing.  It is important to assess where you are in terms of the autumn grazing targets.  For farmers stocked at 3.0 LU/ha, the target is 300-330 kg DM/LU with a 30 day rotation.  Farms should be walked weekly to allow for decisions.  Farms that are behind on this target should take action now by introducing additional supplement like silage, soya hulls or palm kernel to reduce demand.  Problem cows or poor performers, identified by a most recent milk recording, along with empty cows, should be removed from the grazing platform to reduce demand to make more grass available.  All farmers should create a feed budget for the remainder of the grazing season on PastureBase Ireland to help plan out your grazings and help you hit the closing cover target (>700 kg DM/ha) that you set out for your farm as planning begins now.

There is still an opportunity to apply K & lime with the good ground conditions on farm.  Soiled water/collecting yard tank should be spread as paddocks are grazed from October 1st.

Photo:

Kerry Teagasc Joint Programme farm walk on the farm of Andrew & Bernadette Killeen last Tuesday, 24th September.

20th September 2024

Advisor Update: John Conway

Over the past week with good sunshine grass growth has ranged between 40 – 70 kgs/DM/ha/day in the region which should give some  farmers scope to build grass to reach somewhere near target covers.  Soil moisture deficits are still holding back growth in some areas and options such as feeding silage or other feeds needs to be used to stretch the rotation.  Fertiliser closing date was Saturday 14th September so it is important all farmers declare closing stock in the yard even if there is zero closing stock.

With majority of farmers having scanned herds in recent weeks it’s time to look at the % of the herd that is empty.  As milk price is relatively high at the moment some farmers may be reluctant to cull cows that scan empty.  Farmers should ask themselves whether it justifies financially to milk on these empty cows.  Farmers need also assess aspects such as fodder situation, nitrates, labour ability and facilities such as slurry storage.  If one or more of these situations becomes under pressure post assessment, then it can be hard to justify keeping on low or even moderate yielding cows.

Photos:

Reseeds ready for post emergence weed spray on the farm of Stephen McAuliffe on Tuesday 17th September.

6th September 2024

Farmer Update:  Alex and Michael McCarthy

As we put our figures together for this week our average farm cover has started to rise and the farm has started to kick on after the recent rain. Part of the farm is of a heavier nature and this was the first to start growing, in recent days the drier more exposed parts of the farm which have struggled in recent months have greened and are actively growing for the first time in months. Our cows are milking 22.5L/cow/day at 4.29% Butterfat and 3.79% Protein giving 1.87Kg's of MS/cow/day.

All this is shrouded by our recent TB test where we had 10 reactors. Many farms locally have had reactors in recent months and having spoken to many of these over the past few days they have opted to get the herd blood tested and try to get to the root of it as quickly as possible. We have opted to get our herd blood tested also. The reactors have now gone and this has reduced demand on the milking platform to 2.27LU/ha. All the reactors were on the home block so at least the young stock are clean for now.

We had scanned all stock prior to the TB Test and we had a number of cows who we had decided not to breed this spring our empty rate was 13% including about 5% of a selective cull.

We had our winter fodder budget already done prior to the cows lost to TB and we were in a good position thankfully. We have some beef stock on the farm which we normally finish to the factory anyway so at least this won’t be affected.

I have a few paddocks which are getting their final application of fertiliser we are using a protected Urea product with some K in it 29-0-14 as we have some ground which needs K, this will also help growth as we come out of the recent dry conditions.

(picture shows Niall and Gerry Moloney's Zero grazed redclover buffering the milking cows.)

Advisor Update: John William Ryan Listowel Office

Grass growth on farms has improved slightly over the past week. Farmers that applied a blanket application of 30 units of chemical nitrogen are starting to see a response.

Now in September, we are starting our building phase on grass for next spring. Farms should be walked weekly and a cover of 300-340 per cow should be aimed. Farms that are behind on this target should talk to their advisor about remaining fertiliser allowances and apply chemical nitrogen accordingly. Problem cows or poor performers, identified by a most recent milk recording, along with empty cows, should be removed from the grazing platform to reduce demand to make more grass available.

While out on farms, I’m noticing fields reseeded in the last few weeks are germinating well. These should be topped up with 15-20 units of nitrogen per acre 3-4 weeks after reseeding. Seedling docks should be monitored closely and sprayed 5-6 weeks after seeding, when the dock is the size of a 2 euro coin. Aim to complete the first & second grazing of these fields at a low cover to allow seeds to thicken out.

Derogation farmers should check in on their Pasturebase checking completed covers for the year, 20 covers. A grass cover can be completed every 5 days.

30th August 2024

Farmer Update: John Casey

There are currently 2.8ha of reseed to come back into the milking platform. My cows are currently milking 20l/cow/day at 5.49% Butterfat and 4.07% Protein giving 1.97kgs of Milk solids per cow per day which I’m very happy with. However I’m behind target on my autumn average farm cover (AFC), we have been behind all month and haven’t been able to build cover sufficiently despite feeding heavily since mid-July. We are currently feeding 2kg’s of Dairy nut in the parlour, we are feeding PKE and 2 bales of silage a day along the head rail of the cubicle house to reduce demand to allow AFC build. The rain of the past two weeks has greened the farm but growth is still behind what I had hoped for.

We scanned the cows the week before last and had 10 of the 134 empty (7.5% empty) which I was very happy with, the in calf heifers was not as good but overall empty rate was 8% which I’m happy with after a 10 week breeding season. We will sell the empty cows over the next two weeks to try to preserve grass for the in calf cows. Hopefully reducing the stocking rate by selling the culls and getting the reseeds back into grazing platform will help get me closer to my target cover and hopefully I can stop feeding silage in a week or so to preserve my winter stocks. 

I took the opportunity when we were dosing calves two weeks ago to weight my weanling heifers. My Maintenance figure from the ICBF EBI Report for my weanlings is €19 which would suggest that these animals would have an average weight of 550kgs in July of their 3rd lactation. The target weight for these animals in mid-August is 174Kgs and my heifers averaged 175kgs, I separated out the 9 heifers that were below target weight and these will get preferential treatment and be reweighted at housing. These heifers will get the best of the grass on the outside block and they will get 2kgs of ration per head per day while at grass. The heavier bunch are getting 1 kg per head per day. 

I'm following the cows with a bag/acre of 29-0-14 now that we have gotten some rain i find this a very good fertiliser as it allows me to get some K onto my farm as well.

I have some third cut silage growing at the moment on another out block and I hope to harvest this mid-September and the in calf heifers will graze this ground before they are housed.

Advisor Update: Denis Brassil

As discussed last week ground conditions across the catchment vary greatly from east Limerick where growth is still restricted from the dry weather to parts of west Kerry and west Clare where cows had to be housed by night last weekend due to over 70mm of rain in 4 days. This brings home the importance of tailoring your plan to your farm conditions over the next few months.

The data required on farm when making this plan are a winter fodder budget, an in calf scan complete and a recent milk recording can help to give a complete picture. There may be no silver bullet solution but several steps may be taken to help the farm. High SCC or problem cows removed now can have a big influence on keeping scc under control heading into the Autumn and aid cashflow. Poor performing or empty cows removed can give all the other cows in the herd more grass in the paddock and minimise the drop in the bulk tank. Talk to your advisor and make a plan, this can help to reduce the stress for the months ahead.

Fertiliser allowances need to be reviewed and where allowances allow 30 units spread now can have a much bigger influence on total growth than waiting for the 14th of September to blanket spread the farm.

Following the cows with some slurry now gives some extra P and K for growth and helps to have tanks empty in advance of closed period (1st of October).  The longer rotation makes a good opportunity to lime or spread some muriate of potash if required.

23rd August 2024

Farmer Update: Kieran Murphy

On the Milking platform there are currently 3 ha of reseeds set just over 3 weeks all the seeds are up and germinated but like the rest of the farm these need rain. I hope to get this grazed in early September and two more light grazing’s thereafter. We have put some additional roadways on the farm to get better access to a number of paddocks also this summer. I have a winter fodder budget done and I have 5.2 months of silage in the yard for all current stock.

Like many farms in east limerick we are well behind target on building covers and have only managed to maintain average farm cover across the last two weeks by increasing meal and taking 1 zero grazed load per day. We got some rain on Monday night and again last night and the farm is looking green. We have fertilised at 30 units of 18-5-12after the cows as we had held some of our P allowance for this rotation hoping that each forecast rainfall would come. Hopefully we get the kick from this weekend onwards.

We have forty acres of ground fertilised for 4th cut silage at present, this is a mixture of Red clover silage ground and ryegrass ground (see picture), we are now looking at zero grazing the vast majority of this, but we will make decisions on a week by week basis. Our plan for this week is the meal is at 6kg’s and 1 load of Zero grazed grass is about 6kg’s of DM/ cow this is reducing our demand to about 33Kg’s of DM/ha/day. We will try to create a gap of 20 between growth and demand over the next few weeks to try to get average farm cover to around 1000-1050 by mid-September we’ll keep an eye on it each week and if growth picks up we will bale some of this area before mid-September.

There are a few cows coming around every 3 weeks and we have had the odd cow repeat after 60-80 days which is disappointing we’ll scan later on and the plan would be to sell late-calvers next spring as we have the winter fodder.

Advisor Update: Denis Brassil

We have now entered the last days of August and many farms are behind on autumn grazing targets as growth rates for the past several weeks have been lower than normal. The rain in the past few days has made heavy farms tricky and is gratefully received in many other parts. Each farm should be working to their own autumn cover targets based on stocking rate and soil type. If stocked at 3 Cows/ha on the milking platform on dry land the aim is to have an AFC of 1000kg’s of Dm/ha on 1st of September. If behind on this target we need to try to close the gap on this figure as quickly as possible. The reality is many farms will be behind on the figures but this can be dealt with if a plan is in place.

The data required on farm when making these decisions is a winter fodder budget, an in calf scan complete and a recent milk recording can help to give a complete picture. There may be no silver bullet solution but several steps may be taken to help the farm. High SCC or problem cows removed now can have a big influence on keeping scc under control heading into the Autumn. Poor performing or empty cows removed can give all the other cows in the herd more grass in the paddock and minimise the drop in the bulk tank.

Fertiliser allowances need to be reviewed and where allowances allow 30 units spread now can have a much bigger influence on total growth than waiting for the 14th of September to blanket spread the farm.

Following the cows with some slurry now gives some extra P and K for growth and helps to have tanks empty in advance of closed period (1st of October).  The longer rotation makes a good opportunity to lime or spread some muriate of potash if required.

16th August 2024

Farmer Update: Andrew Killeen

During the month of July we completed some reseeding on both the milking platform and one of the out blocks as well. Due to the lie of the land here reseeding is never as simple as spray off, disc and reseed there is always some other work to be carried out, this time we had some new drainage to be put in, we moved water troughs to the middle of the paddocks and we put in spur roadways to help with access in difficult conditions. We plan to spray post emergence on these seeds in the coming week and then to graze once we observe the spray do not graze label requirement. I’m quite happy with the take on both grass and clover and the seedling docks are about the size of a €2 coin.

We are currently on target for building autumn covers and I may need to take one paddock out towards the end of next week if growth keeps up. The key on our farm is to not build AFC over 900Kg’s of DM/ha as covers over 2000KG’s of DM/ha are too difficult to graze on our soil type. We are using 20units of Pro Urea behind the cows and normally find that this is enough as we can get shut down by the weather quickly enough and we probably won’t get more than 2 additional rotations per paddock. 

We scanned our heifers on Thursday and all are in calf, the heifers based on their genetics were split for beef and sexed Dairy. I’m a little disappointed that Just 8 of 20 held to sexed Dairy, fortunately most of these held to conventional Dairy on the repeats and the bull got the last few. The conventional beef semen got 12 out of 14 on first service. I’m very happy with how these heifers have grown over the summer and I hope to have some of these for sale once the cows are scanned.

Advisor Update: Fabian McCarthy Tralee Office

Grass growth rates have improved a lot in the last few weeks. For the month of August farmers should continue to walk their farm weekly to assess where grass covers are on the farm. August is an important month with the focus on building some grass covers to take some August grass into September and September grass through into October. Follow your target grass cover taking stocking rate and land type into account. Build peak farm cover in early September 300 to 330 kg DM/LU.

If you are finding that you are ahead of target now identify paddocks to take out, they should be removed immediately so they aren’t slow to regrow into September.  Equally if behind target and trying to build you need to take action immediately as growth rates tend to drop off quickly when we get into September. Take any surplus stock off the platform, increase grazing area by bring in silage ground/reseed ground and Supplement with meal and/or silage. It also important to ensure Slurry tanks are emptied before the end of September deadline. Spreading this slurry now can help to maximise autumn grass growth and also an opportunity with longer rotations to get a  lime application for your farm.

Farm Updates

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Current Farm Updates

9th August 2024

Farmer Update: William Dennehy

We have our second cut pitted and all this ground got 3000 gallons of slurry, so we have very little slurry left on farm now just Dairy washings that we produce daily. We updated our winter fodder budget allowing for the pit to settle and we have 6 months fodder in the yard. I had planned to close 19 acres for third cut but unfortunately I had TB reactors in my annual test so the 29 weanlings cannot now go to the contract rearer’s farm, so they will get a paddock at home and then one of the 9 acre out blocks once after grass returns.

I plan to graze my June reseed tomorrow it’s well fit to graze but I was delayed with my post emergence spray. The paddock I have over sown clover into this year was scored with 12% clover content recently so I’m happy with that but grass quality is poor so I’m going to bale this off as soon as it hits 1500 Kg’s of DM this time this should help with letting light down to the base of the sward. I’m slightly ahead of my autumn cover building target so taking this paddock out for bales and grazing a paddock with the weanlings brings me back on track.

 I also plan to put in a new pathway into a paddock on farm which I found difficult to get to the back off in the spring, I have removed a lot of the permanent wires on the home farm across the summer to make the paddocks more suitable to 36hr grazing blocks for the herd number now. I have also identified two of the existing pathways to extend straight away before the autumn, I found these invaluable this spring for getting cows to grass. 

Breeding has finished since the 11th of July which was just over 9 weeks, I'm not seeing too much activity so hopefully things have gone according to plan.

All the low K paddocks on the farm got ½ Bag of Muriate of Potash at the end of July and hopefully I’ll see the benefit in the soil samples later in the year.

Advisor Update: Anthony O'Connor Killarney Office

With recent rainfall growth has picked up on farm. Grass quality is still an issue on some farms so when a surplus appears, take paddocks out for bales. If no surplus appears, mow post grazing. We have a short period left to correct grass quality before we start building covers for the autumn. If quality isn’t corrected, and we build covers on these paddocks, it will negatively impact production and body condition on cows. Your rotation should be extended out to 30 days by the first of September. We want to be hitting peak farm cover mid to late September.

Review your Fertiliser strategy for the following 4 weeks. If there is an allowance, it would be better to front load this allowance now instead of waiting until the middle of September. The response you get from N application in August is far greater than the response in September. For any reseeds, seeds should be in the ground no later than the middle of August.

26th July 2024

Farmer Update: Stephen McAuliffe

We cut our second cut today Friday and will be picking it up tomorrow morning all going well. When recently completing my winter fodder budget I was on target to have sufficient fodder for the six month winter we plan for here. 2nd cut had filled out a lot here in the past 10 days so we wanted to get it in before quality deteriorated. I have some Red clover silage on the heifer block and this has worked well as a feed for the heifers last winter with good growth rates over the winter so i plan to continue the same for this winter.

On the milking platform I have two paddocks out to reseed one of these blocks required some digger work which I had to complete on it so hopefully we will get these completed and seeds in the ground asap. I had some topping done in a few paddocks to control weeds and to help correct quality in parts of paddocks. The farm here is a mix of soil types with a mix in most paddocks. The rain over the past few weeks has helped growth recover and with 2nd cut complete i will have more ground available to the cows once after-grass comes back in the next few weeks. Getting my reseeds in is now a priority so that I can get an opportunity in early September to get my post emergence spray on in time to allow a couple of grazing's to help the grass plants tiller sufficiently before the winter.

Breeding has finished since the 15th of July which was 10 weeks, this normally allows us a break between calving cows and start of breeding each April/May, a chance to recharge the batteries normally even though this spring was challenging. I'm not seeing too much activity so hopefully things have gone according to plan.

Picture: Kerry/Teagasc Demonstration farmers Group trip to Farm of Kevin Moran, Galway

Advisor Update: Denis Brassil

With the recent favourable weather many 2nd cuts have been completed on farm, all farms should now have a winter fodder budget complete and if short need to have a plan in place over the next while to maximise grass grown on all parts of the farm to help minimise the shortage. 3rd cuts require about 60 units of N which can be achieved with 2500 gallons of slurry/acre applied by trailing shoe/dribble bar plus a bag of protected urea per acre.

Care also needs to be taken not to build autumn covers too early on lighter stocked farms, the importance of walking the farm and continue to cut out surplus’s over the next 2-3 weeks is key. Discuss your autumn grass cover targets with you advisor as all farms vary depending on soil type and stocking rate.

Liming costs have increased along with most farm costs but the return on correct soil PH is still well worth the investment.

19th July 2024

Farmer Update: Niall and Gerry Moloney

We cut our second cut of Red clover silage on Wednesday this week see picture below and I hope to cut this again in 7-8 weeks’ time. I have kept the red clover silage in a separate pit so we can use it when we need to. Like many farms around us second cuts are lighter than we would like as the dry cold weather has affected growth.

On the milking platform we need rain to help growth, we have been matching demand to growth to keep cover/cow at around 170Kg’s of Dm/ha but we have more meal feed than I would like and we have zero grazed more ground than I would like. On a positive note the reseed  was grazed on the 12th and is flying back. We will reassess winter fodder stocks after the grass 2nd cut silage is pitted in early August.

Grass quality has been frustrating to say the least we have on several occasions had to jump into paddocks with lighter covers to try to control quality and we have had to top paddocks again in July that were topped in May due to grass heading out at lighter covers.We find it critical to correct quality in July before trying to build covers in August. 

Breeding will finish on the 1st of August which is 13 weeks, we normally get to sell later calving cows once we have our number calved. Two of the three week cycles seem to have gone quite well with a few more repeats in the other week than I would like to see but I’m happy enough so far.

Advisor Update: Adrian Curtin, Kanturk Advisory Office

Grass supply looks to improve slightly this week as the weather isn’t giving as cold at night time and higher day time temperatures. In an effort to maintain grass supply and build some extra silage/ grass on farm aim to use up your fertiliser allowance and if possible increase the amount of chemical fertiliser being spread per round and better growth is being found when this is combined with slurry.

Silage stocks look lower than normal in yards. This should be addressed now and changes should be made to help sort this issue out. The selling of cows not in calf or poor performing should be looked at. 6 cull cows will eat the equivalent of 55 bales on a 5 month winter or 50 tonne of silage.

Now is also a good time start to applying potassium to any fields that require extra Potassium to build soil fertility. Increasing the potassium levels in soil has a benefit in silage crop yields. This time of year is a good opportunity to replenish the soil potassium levels after the silage crop has removed. Using fertiliser like 29-0-15 is a good way to apply Potassium and also some nitrogen with it.

Silage fields after 2nd cut has been completed also gives a good opportunity to apply lime. Slurry first, lime second.