Grazing ramps up on Teagasc/Tirlán Future farms
After a challenging couple of weeks, farmers enrolled in the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farm Programme have been making the most of better weather to ramp up grazing, Co-ordinator of the Programme, Sandra Hayes tells us more.
Like most farmers across the country, the participants in the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farm Programme have been dealing with challenging conditions over the last number of weeks when it comes to grazing.
Achieving at least one grazing a day was the target - a necessity in boosting the energy density of the diet as early calved cows come on in milk and keeping costs to a minimum – but something which proved rather challenging again this spring.
Abating this challenge somewhat was excellent grazing infrastructure. Good roadways, plenty of gaps – allowing ingress and exit at different points – along with on-off grazing have all be used in order to try to get some cost saving and performance boosting spring grass into the diet. One standout tip I’ve witnessed on my visits is having the reels and pigtails set up in advance of showery weather. It’s one less job to do and makes it much easier to actually let the cows out to grass when a smash and grab grazing opportunity presents in showery weather.
As a group, the farmers have grazed an average of 19%, but this varies from 5% right up to 30%. With kinder conditions now present, different farms will have to employ different strategies to ensure they have sufficient grass supplies for the start of second rotation. Since the weather has picked up this week, the Teagasc/Tirlán Future farmers have been making great inroads with grazing; most herds are now out day and night and the percentage of area grazed is increasingly significantly.
These strategies can be summarised as follows:
- If 20%+ grazed by March 1st then graze 60% by St. Patrick’s Day and 100% by April 10th;
- If 10% grazed by March 1st then graze 30% by St. Patrick’s Day, 60% by April 1st and 100% by April 15th.
- If 0% grazed by March 1st then graze 30% by St. Patrick’s Day, 60% by April 1st and 100% by April 20th.
Before conditions deteriorated, most of the farmers had applied some slurry in January, with applications of 2,000-2,500 gallons/ac being common place on lower cover paddocks. This early application of nutrients is helping boost regrowths now. Additionally some farmers have applied 20 units/ac acre of protected urea and, with this week’s settled weather, the remainder of the farmers are aiming to spread this week. Where no slurry has been applied, applications will be 23-25 units/ac of protected urea.
Away from grassland management, calving has gone very well on the monitor farms and as a group, over 70% of the cows have now calved.
For further information, visit the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farm Programme webpage here.