Tírlán Farmer Updates 2024

22nd November

Group Overview

Main activity over the last week or two has been the housing of livestock. The weather the last 2 months have meant extended grazing for most of the monitor farms. This has made substantial savings on silage stocks. Heifers have been dried off, most have been given a 12 week dry off period and cows have received a 10 week dry period. The cull cows have either been sold off farm already or are being milked until mid to late December and then being sold.

Over the last few weeks we have taken the opportunity to investigate soil health on the farms. We have dug soil profiles in many different sites including, best clover fields. multi species, poached areas from the springtime and paddocks that have or not been reseeded. This has allowed us to examine the soil structure in these fields and to advise on over the winter remedies to help improve damaged soil structure. If gaps into paddocks are poached a moving of that access point to allow no further heavy damage to take place. Farmyard manure is spread in areas now to allow worm activity to break up over the winter months.

1st November

Farmer Focus

Last week we held the last of our farm walks for 2024 on the Murphy family farm outside of Inistioge Co Kilkenny. A large farmer audience got to hear of how this 1st year has been for the farm in the Teagasc Tirlan Future Farm programme. Last year the cows achieved 532kgs MS and this year is on track to do similar as discussed by Bryan Harte, Tirlan via the new milk solids tracker. The financials of the farm were discussed including prospects for 2024/2025. The breeding of their herd was analysised including how the predicted Fat & Protein potential of the herd with an average of 2.9 lactations is already being achived on the farm, 4.83% fat & 4.01% protein. Farmers learnt about the new water EIP & how they can apply for funding on over 43 different measures to help improve water quality on the farm. A new KPI was discussed called Nitrogen surplus, also known as N balance. The lower this figure is on farm shows that more N inputs are used on farm and not lost to the water or gaseous emissions. The less N lost the higher productivity and profitability on the farm. Farmers can access their N balance figure via AgNav from all Teagasc Signpost advisors and this is a free service available to all farmers.

18th October

October Focus

Farm visits this month have centred on grass and autumn grass budgets. Depending on the farm there has been variation but each farm has done up a budget and has been adjusting it depending on their growth rates. Plans have started to select 1st lactation cows for drying off. Another round of milk recordings have taken place and some herds will do another milk recording in November before the larger number of cows are started to be dried off in batches.

We are holding our final farm walk of 2024 on the Murphy family farm on the 30th of October in Fiddawn, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny. On the day we will discuss the KPI's on milk production, breeding, farm finance and grass performance. There will also be speakers on soil fertility, value of slurry on this farm  & N surplus and what it is plus water quality and what is the water EIP about & how can farmers apply. Tirlan will speak on their Milk Solids Tracker and its benefits. We will start at 11am and all are very welcome. Eircode is R95 H2N0 (zero)

4th October

Farmer Focus

Last week we held the monitor farmers group meeting on Tom Murphy's farm. After a focus on how the group were regards grass we walked the farm. At that stage Tom had an AFC of over 1000kgs DM/ha. He explained how he dropped the demand as low as he could during August and fed 60 bales and this had allowed him to build grass on the farm. Other topics discussed was nitrates, soil fertility, Tom's 11 week breeding season and whole farm SR. This week I was out with Tom in advance to the farm walk we will hold on the farm on the 30th of October. The current AFC is 978kgs DM/ha. The new reseed has now a 700kgs DM/ha cover and it got its post emergence spray. Tom will graze with cows this week to encourage tillering. We completed an autumn grass budget for the farm.  This budget was adjusted for what we thought growth rates would be for Oct/Nov. We will adjust this every week after each grass cover but it is showing Tom that he does not need to put in any silage, just grass and 3kg meal until 2nd to 3rd week of November when probably the herd will be housed. Feeding the silage in August has paid off! The farm also started 10 milkings in 7 this week.

6th September

*Winter Milk

Group Focus

Growth rates over the last 2 weeks have varied from 40 to 85kgs DM/ha. This is due to weather conditions. Many of the monitor farms could do with some rain as it is the limiting factor. Some have got rain but the accompanying wind has dried up any moisture in the ground very quickly. To combat this lower growth rate the farms have been dropping demand as best they can with zero grazed grass or silage. Last round of fertiliser is either out or out this week. Farm visits this month have focused on plans on how to build grass on the farm and how completing fodder budgets for all 11 farms. Some farms have over 5 months fodder and others that are tighter are looking at different meal supplementation and/or stocking rates for the winter. Good to see that the farmers have taken or are taking a break/time off farm. Change as good as a rest!

Tirlan have organised a webinar for 1pm on the 11th September on Fodder budgeting for the months ahead. Farmers can join here

Video on how to create a Fodder Budget using the Pasturebase ireland programme

23rd August

Farmer Focus

This week I was out with one of our Kilkenny monitor farmers, Tom Murphy farming near Inistioge with his parents milking 192 cows. Tom was getting the last of the reseeding done this week. This farm is free draining and can get caught with dry spells during the summer. Thankfully the mixed wet weather has suited this farm this year and the milking platform has grown on average 12.6tonnes DM/ha with most paddocks grazed 7 times so far. Tom has incorporated clover into all his reseeds and the farm has currently 49% clover of either medium or high content. The current reseed is made up of the varieties Aberclyde and Nashota with 2.5kgs of white clover. Focus for the farm will now change to building autumn covers. Tom has brought back in paddocks that had been cut for silage and a paddock that was out for surplus. Aftergrass covers range from 550 kgs DM/ha to 1100kgs DM/ha. This has brought the stocking rate to 2.87 LU/ha. Cows are getting 3kgs meal and if growth rates drop below demand this month the strategy is to introduce silage to help build covers. The rain this week and fertiliser spread will definitely help maintain a steady growth rate for this farm. Tom has scanned this week and after a 10 week breeding season he has 8% empty which he is happy with.

26th July

Farmer Focus

This Wednesday I was on the farm of Shay Ryan, Rochestown, New Ross, Co Wexford and it was great to get a growth over 100kgs DM/ha. With this growth Shay planned to take opportunities to increase the area to be taken out for reseeding and 3 paddocks were ear marked to be taken as surplus when weather allows. There has been limited surplus off the MP this year so far so they will be a welcome support to the winter fodder plan. Shay is spreading fertiliser twice a month. Up to now he has spread Protected Urea. He will go with 18-6-12 +S, normally 20 units for every 30 days. Paddocks with over 25% clover is getting 10 units/ac. Shay has made good use of dairy washings and watery slurry as well. There is 3ha sprayed off for reseeding at the moment and it has FYM spread on it too. Shay plans to reseed with the variety Nashota plus white clover. This grass variety has been used in the past and is performing very well on the farm. Breeding went for 10.5 weeks on the farm, 6 weeks AI and 4 + weeks with the bulls. Shay is happy enough so far, seeing only a few repeats in the 1st week after finishing. He used sexed semen in the 1st week to 10 days. He will scan at the end of August to see how things have gone.

12th July 2024

Farmer Focus - John Ryan Co. Tipperary

Grass measuring with John Ryan in Gortnahoe, Co. Tipperary and  looking at his May reseed. John put in 3kgs of white clover in the mix. It received its post emergence spray at 7/8 weeks & was grazed at the end of June. It has a clover score of 25% + & with 1100kgs DM/ha on it it was to be grazed next to encourage tillering & clover establishment. John is following the cows with 29-0-14 plus3%S at 1 unit/day application rate. John got his 1st cut silage done in May so he is going at the 2nd cut this week weather permitting. We completed a fodder budget for all stock going to be winter housed building in a 1 month security amount. John has over 60% of his fodder in stock for the winter. We accounted for the 2nd cut plus a 3rd cut & he should be 100% secure come September. We would encourage all farmers to do a fodder budget up to see & plan for winter'24. Dung samples were taken from the calves 2 weeks ago & they were clear. They have received no doses so far. They have gotten all their vaccines like Blackleg etc. All 41 calves were weighed as well 2 weeks ago & all bar 9 were over 155kgs. Anything under 155kgs will receive 1.5kg meal until weighed next. Rest are on grass only.

June 28th 

• Winter milk

Group Focus

Busy fortnight for the monitor farm group. Firstly the Kearneys held a farm walk on mid-season management of clover plus steps taken on the farm to help improve water quality. All of the speakers on the day focused on the simple steps taken which added together make a large cumulative effect.

Soil conditions

Actual farm optimum percentages for pH, P, & K (93%, 100%, and 76% respectively) reveal mostly optimal soil conditions. The high adoption of protected urea on the farm (77%) reflects the Kearney’s efforts to reduce farm emissions.

Clover

We also got the farmer audience to clover score during the walk. Scoring is done 2/3 times a year on this farm. Mike Egan of Teagasc Moorepark explained it has been a tough year on clover and to ensure there is 25% clover before chemical N is cut back.

We then had the Tirlan Water Quality focused farm walk on Donal Kavanagh's farm in Baltinglas last Friday. Again we demonstrated that not one measure on its own is going to solve water quality issues. It is all farmers doing what they can. Its the cumulative effect that will work, not the silver bullet!

Then this Monday the group met on the farm of Kevin Murphy's for our June group meeting.

14th June

Farmer Focus

This Tuesday I was on the farm of John & Shane Fitzgerald near Portlaw, Waterford. Both John and Shane were busy spreading fertiliser and getting out slurry via LESS in preparation for 2nd cut. 0-7-30 was also being spread on the multi species swards as it makes up to 20% of the swards on the milking platform. Kate, Shane's fiancee did the grass walk with us and we did notice a fall off in the clover content of both the clover grass swards and the clover in the multi species. As alot of the paddocks were grazed well it will be left to score once they have a higher cover in a week or two. It just goes to show how important it is to walk the farm regularly. Decisions regarding PGC, supplementation etc all need to be monitored closely in order to maintain milk solids. Walk grass as often as you can. Shane had been feeding 4kgs meal and 4kgs silage as AFC was low. Growth was 72kgs/ha so demand could be increased and silage dropped. If the farm was not walked supplement would have been in too long. The next walk will deem if meal can be dropped. The 21 day submission rate was 80% and 28% was the return rate from those cows served 24 days plus.

31st May

*Winter milk
Group are measuring once if not twice a week a this stage

Farmer Focus

Future Farm Programme Co-Ordinator Sandra Hayes visited Tom & David Fennelly's farm in Co. Laois. She could see the evidence of lots of progress over the previous month - after-grass and reseeds.

Grassland

The farm has 80% of its 1st cut silage in and they reseeded a grass and fodder crop paddock with a multi species mix. Paddock sprayed off on 20th April and reseeded 10/11th May. Grass is tight now but surplus was taken to correct PGY as growth exceeded demand over a few weeks. On this walk we noticed that a lot of the clover dominant paddocks have less clover than last year. This was noticed this on many of the monitor farms. Soil fertility is excellent but a mixture of some heavy covers last year and this spring have impacted the clover.

Breeding

Breeding is going well with 94% submitted in 3 weeks. The heifers were synchronised and 2 Angus bulls are with them now. There were 200 sexed semen straws used, 83 on the heifers and rest on cows. Cow selection was on a number of criteria, high Protein %, good MS, positive for health and good maintenance figure too. Now a team of high DBI straws are being used.

Calves

Issue noted this week is coughing in the calves which are now on grass and a faecal sample as sent off to investigate further.

17th May

Farmer Focus

We took the opportunity while grass measuring this week to see how silage crops were going. Tom Murphy near Inistioge, Kilkenny had grazed his silage ground once in early spring and a small section twice due to poor growth rates in April. All had received 2500 gallons of slurry plus 60 units PU + Sulphur. We cut and weighed using 16% DM and got between 5 and 6 ton DM/ha. We noticed some of the grasses had started to head out. We know the later you delay cutting the lower the DMD drops. If cut nearer to the 22nd May DMD averages at 76.6%, 29th May it drops to 74.6%. After achieving a growth rate of over 100kgs DM/ha we looked to the wedge as PGY was too high, over 1640. We took out surplus paddocks to drop the cover per cow to 165 kgs DM/ha. This increased the SR to 5.4LU/ha but this is only for a short period. We also did a predicted wedge for next week and we can see more surplus that can be taken out. This is an opportunity to correct the wedge, make surplus bales and get the PGY to closer to 1350kgs DM/ha. Breeding is on target for over 90% submission in 3 weeks.

Grass yield and digestibility

Silage yields and digestibilities (DMD) will be lower than these vales

3rd May

*Winter milk

Farmer focus - John Ryan

This week Sandra Hayes was out with John Ryan, our monitor farmer in Tipperary. Along with the usual grass walk we did a clover score of all the paddocks on the milking platform.

Clover

The farm now has 32% of the MP at a high clover score which is 30% plus clover content in the sward. These are mainly the reseeds from the last few years. There is also 26% at a medium score which is 20% clover content. This score will allow John to reduce his nitrogen applications on these paddocks from May onwards.

Breeding

John started breeding with the heifers on the 18th of April. All heifers had a fixed time AI programme and now there is a Hereford bull in with them. The cows were started on the 17th April and 73.5% were submitted in 17 days. On Monday 29th April the last of the Friesian sexed semen straws were used. From 30th April all cows will receive beef AI as will any repeats. John used 70 Friesian sexed semen straws on cows and heifers and this will give him a minimum of 35 replacement heifer calves. All beef AI straws are selected from high DBI bulls focusing on gestation length, calving ease and beef carcass quality. John used the same protocol last year and he was very happy with the results he got. He has 41 heifers calves & all beef calves are now sold this year.

Grassland

John is following the cows with either 2500 gal/slurry/ac or 25 units PU + S. Results from the latest soil tests showing that all ground in the MP is now >6.2 pH and Index 3 or 4 for P and K.

19th April

*Winter milk

Farmer Focus

Sandra Hayes was out grass measuring with Tom Murphy near Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny this week. Tom is on his 2nd round and graze out is variable depending on the weather at time of grazing. If no rain showers there was good graze out but heavy showers meant more was left in the paddock than Tom would like. He has about 40% of the round grazed. Cows are out day and night.

Cows are on 4kgs which will drop to 3kgs now.

Tom has 60 units of N out between chemical N and lagoon slurry. He will start to follow the cows with 20 units of Protected Urea plus Sulphur.

Tom put some of the cows, mainly 1st & 2nd calvers on OAD milking about a month ago. He is very happy with the condition they put on and they are now showing strong heats. He will do a pre breeding scan next week on cows that calved after 17th March and any cows that have not shown heats on the collars. Breeding for the cows starts 1st May, heifers on FTAI a few days later.

Aim for this week is to get pre grazing yield to 1300-1400kgs DM/ha by rectifying the wedge.

5th April

Farmer Focus

This week I was with Steven Fitzgerald near Aglish in Co Waterford. Steven has been getting the cows to grass as much as he can. This has been achieved by walking the farm as much as he can so he can assess what fields can and cannot be grazed. On days where cows are in on silage they get 1-2kgs chopped beet and pit silage. Steven knows the quality of the silage at this stage is not great and protein % in the milk drops to 3.28%. When he gets grass back into the cows it rises to 3.48-3.5%. Over the last 2 weeks paddocks got 30 units of Pro Urea + Sulphur. On badly damaged paddocks Steven spread 18-6-12. The P helps repair the damaged grass root. The following video gives an overview of the spring and what Steven is going to do over the next 4/5 weeks in preparation for the breeding season.

Watch the video: Tough Spring and Breeding prep 2024

22nd March

Farmer Review

This week I was out with our new monitor farmer Tom Murphy from near Inistioge in Kilkenny. First thing we do on all visits is to do up a grass walk. As Tom has topless cubicles he makes every effort to get his cows to grass every day possible. He finds it is better for the cow and greatly reduces high SCC and cases of mastitis in the spring. This has been tricky this spring but Tom has a good dry farm and by using on off grazing he has got cows to grass and tried to minimise poaching. All of the heavy covers, 1500 kgs DM/ha received 2500 gal/ac of slurry a month ago and Tom has also got 30 units of Protected urea out on other paddocks. The earliest paddocks grazed have a minimum of 800kgs DM/ha back on them. Tom also has 27 acres of red clover that he can zero graze and bring back to the dairy herd. Another ground inspection is needed to see when this can go ahead. Calving is on the wind down with less than 20 cows to calve.

We will be hosting a Breeding Farm walk as part of the Teagasc breeding week on next Wednesday 27th March in John ryan's farm in Gortnahoe, Co Tipperary. We will start at 11am and have speakers from Teagasc, Teagasc Dairy Beef 500 team, Dovea and Tirlan. All are very welcome to join us

8th of March

Farmer review

Out this week with John Ryan in Gortnahoe, Co Tipperary. When we did the grass walk we were surprised how well the ground was holding up after the heavy rain on Monday night. It just goes to show that land needs to walked regularly as there may be an area availble for grazing and to limit too much damage. John has 87% calved and up to Monday had 28% grazed. The multi species reseed from 2023 was the first to be grazed and that had only 350 kgs DM/ha of a cover back on it. Other grass clover paddocks grazed in early February had 500/600 kgs DM/ha grown back. Graze out was variable depending on weather conditions but you could see the advantage to good road access and plenty of gateways in helping out with this. John has slurry out 2000-2500 gal/ac but this is mainly on the silage ground. Some of the milking platform has a mixture of soiled water and slurry spread. John plans to go with 25-30 units/ac of protected urea, ground weather conditions allowing in the next week. John has his first milk recording of 2024 booked in for next Monday. This will give him a look at how the herd's dry cow tube worked and to see if there any individual cow cases are present. At present herd SCC is at 75,000.

23rd of February

Group review

The monitor farms have on average 65% calved but witht the difficult grazing weather the % grazed varies from 2 to 20%. All farms are trying to get out to grass. They are using good roadways, plenty of gaps, trying to let cows into paddocks one way and out another and using on off grazing. While I with Jack Kearney cows were let out at 10am, brought back in at 1pm, no access to silage, milked at 3pm, back out to grass for 2/3 hours and in for few kgs silage. This works well when you are restricted with wet weather. Some herds milked OAD for a few weeks as well. We are updating the grass budgets and this weeks growth's have been between 10-13kgsDM/ha. These are higher than we predicted so budgets are adjusted to allow more grass and reduce silage intake. Most of the farms have some slurry applied to lower cover paddocks at 2000 gal/ac. Protected Urea is in the yards waiting for this weekend or next week to spread. Target is to spread 23 units/ac where no slurry has been applied. Soil temperatures have been between 8-9 degrees.

9th of February

All opening covers have been completed over the last 2 weeks. Winter growth has varied from 4kgs DM/ha to 12kgs DM/ha. We have completed spring grass budgets for most of the monitor farms and they are all following the spring rotation planner. Those with high opening farm covers will try and get 35-40% grazed in February if weather conditions allow. The high opening covers have allowed a grass budget of just grazed grass and meal which if weather allows will be great for the cows, great for workload reduction for the farmer and a huge saving in silage. After having the group profit monitor meeting on the 12th of January there was a refocus on how important it is to maximise the amount of grazed grass you can get into your cows. It is a huge driver of farm profitability. Grazed grass is good for the cow, the farmer and the environment!