Grass 10 Featured Farmer - Aidan Maguire, Co. Meath
Aidan farms near Navan in Co Meath. He has a Dairy-Calf to Beef enterprise with a stocking rate of 2.1 LU/ha on whole farm. The 2021 annual tonnage is 13.5 T DM/ha. Currently he has 48 heavy cattle and 143 weanlings out grazing. Aidan gives a grazing update
Autumn Grazing Management
There’s lots of grass on the farm at the minute. The growth on Saturday October 22nd was 59 KgDM/ha, and the average farm cover actually increased. There’s at least two weeks of grass ahead for the weanlings even without growth!
The last of the heavier cattle will be housed in the next couple of weeks to start on a finishing diet. I’m currently strip-grazing them on 0.25 ha per day blocks. I’m able to split my 1ha paddocks into 4 easily. This is key to grazing out well, as their covers are getting close 2,500 KgDM/ha and being grazed down to 4-4.5cm. This means these swards will have great quality in the spring.
The spring born calves are on lighter covers of 18-1900 KgDM/ha and are well trained to graze. They are getting 1kg meal all year, and are very content even during the unsettled weather.
I’ve finished 23 cattle off grass with some meal and 62 more are housed and will be finished by mid-November. This will free up housing for the weanlings and the last cattle to be finished.
Regrowths are strong on paddocks which are closed and I don’t have a big demand for grass in the spring so I’m not exactly sure when the calves will be housed. The main thing I focus on is to have a closing cover of 600 KgDM/ha for 1st December. This is to open around 750-800 Kg DM/ha in early Feb. I usually begin spring grazing the last week of January doing on-off grazing. This is the reason why I can get a lot of cattle finished in the autumn. The longer the grazing season the easier it is to finish cattle at the other end.
Diet: Weanlings - 3 KgDM Grass + 1 Kg Meal, Heavy cattle - 10.5 KgDM Grass
Rotation Length: 50 days
Pre-Grazing Yield: 2500 KgDM/ha (heavy cattle), 1800 KgDM/ha (weanlings)
Average Farm Cover (AFC): 984 KgDM/ha
Days Ahead: 45 days ahead
Growth: 60 KgDM/ha/day
Demand: 22 KgDM/ha/day
Annual Tonnage YTD: 11.2 T DM/ha (2 T DM/ha less than 2021)
Autumn Slurry Management
All slurry was applied by August, there was only a few loads left and they went mainly to silage ground. Lime was spread in early spring on the out-block and the home-block is good for pH. My current soil samples were only taken in the spring and I’m using these to make decisions on fertiliser through the year.
