Managing grass with heavy rainfall on a Limerick DairyBeef 500 farm

Despite the wet conditions, Ciaran Bartley, a participant in the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Campaign, has devised a plan to keep grass in the diet for as long as possible. Alan Dillion, DairyBeef 500 Campaign Co-ordinator, tells us more.

While some parts of the country have had little or any rain from mid-August up to September 15^th, there are significant pockets - particularly in the south west, around parts of east Limerick, north Cork and Kerry, and parts of other western counties - that have experienced torrential rain and severe flooding from thundershowers since the last few days of August.

While those on drier ground might be able to weather the storm for a while and hold stock at grass, those on heavier ground have decisions to make to avoid severe poaching and damaging land – an unusual decision to be made during the week of the National Ploughing Championships.

Ciaran Bartley, who farms in Boher, Co. Limerick, has been one of the farmers unfortunate to receive very high volumes of localised rain, with thundershowers causing severe flooding in some of the nearby areas. For the first two weeks of September, close to five inches of rain fell in the area. When combined with an already extremely wet summer, this is causing Ciaran to look at options to reduce damage, maintain his autumn rotation plan and to keep grass in the diet for as long as possible.

Early finishing

Between 0-1 and 1-2 year olds, in the region of 350 head of stock are on the farm for much of the year. As housing space is limited, Ciaran devised a farm system which sees the heaviest 50 1-2 year old steers supplemented at grass prior to housing. These steers, while in paddocks close to the farmyard, can enter a feed passage in a dry shed from mid-July onwards to eat meal daily. Once cattle become accustomed to the system, there is very little labour involved.

The results of this system mean that 50 cattle are ready to kill off grass in the next week or so at a target carcass weight of 280kg, after consuming 4-5kg/head of meal for the past 70-80 days. This will take a large amount of pressure off the grazing land and free up more grass to be eaten by lighter weanlings.

If wet conditions persist, Ciaran will house the next 50 strongest Friesian steers at around 470-500kg. These can be housed now, about a month earlier than usual, and fed 5-6kg of meal along with good silage (over 70% DMD) for 70-80 days before killing at around 285-290kg carcass. This is a little bit lighter than Ciaran’s usual kill weight of over 300kg. However, marketing earlier will bring in cash quicker, allow more grass to build outside for weanlings and lighter stores, and free up more shed space for when the last group of stores are housed in late autumn. The last group of stores will be fed on grass only until housing, with a target kill time of March 2024 at around 300-310kg carcass.

Weanlings can be targeted to graze outside on the covers remaining. Given the low dry matter in the grass, supplementation of 1.5-2kg of a ration with a good energy content will be required. Although they might still do some damage, this will be mitigated by their lighter liveweight and, once moved on, ground will recover.

The key requirement Ciaran will have with so many cattle housed or sold is trying to reach his target of having close to 60% of the farm closed by around November 1^st. Ciaran can try to achieve this by targeting lighter grazing covers first, with the aim to move through these at a faster pace to reach his target of 60% in six weeks.

Table 1. Ciaran Bartley’s autumn rotation planner 74ha farm

Also read: Planning now for early spring grass

For more information on the DairyBeef 500 Campaign, click here.