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Grass10 Newsletter - 17th January 2023


Grassland Excellence for Irish Livestock

Predicted Rainfall

Predicted Rainfall 18012023

Counties map showing predicted rainfall (mm) for the next 7 days from farms involved in the MoSt grass growth model (78 farms).

 

 

 

Predicted Grass Growth

Predicted Grass Growth 18012023

Counties map showing predicted grass growth over the next 7 days from farms involved in the MoSt grass growth model (78 farms).

 

 

 

Grass 10 Weekly Checklist

grass10 checklist 18012023

Complete your opening farm cover in the next week

Early indicators are showing that grass supply on farms is well back on this time last year, however many farmers have yet to carry out their opening farm cover. The current AFC 728 Kg DM/ha is back compared to 845 Kg DM/ha recorded in 2022. Complete your opening farm cover over the next week or two and establish grass supply on your farm this spring. Look at Dara Killeen’s grass budget below from PastureBase which gives a guide to the grass allowance through the spring to get to the start of the 2nd rotation.

Make a spring fertiliser and slurry plan

Getting the best response from your slurry and fertiliser is win-win for you and the environment. It saves you money and ensures more nutrients are used to grow grass. When making a plan take into consideration slurry availability for silage production (and low P & K indexes) first and then the grazing paddocks. It is possible using the right slurry timing, method and rate to reduce the need for chemical N fertiliser, however, around 46u chemical N/ac will be required to see most dry farms out to early April. On heavy soils and lower stocked farms this can be reduced to around 30u N/ac. See William Burchill's article on utilising slurry on your farm and Deirdre Hennessy’s work on applying spring Nitrogen to help you make decisions on your farm.

Review paddock sizes and farm map on PastureBase Ireland

Before opening AFC is completed on farms, it is an ideal opportunity to make adjustments to your paddocks on PastureBase Ireland i.e. you may have amalgamated two paddocks into one on the farm but these may still be two paddocks on PBI. You can also map the farm on PastureBase Ireland and use this map to have accurate paddock sizes You can “edit” or “remove” paddocks and adjust areas in the “Paddock” section on PastureBase Ireland. See video below from Micheal O Leary on mapping your farm on PastureBase Ireland

Register for PastureBase week from 16th – 20th January (this week)

PastureBase usage is growing year on year, and why wouldn't it be with the incredible service it offers farmers. To support and celebrate this, we are hosting PastureBase Week from 16th-20th January 2023. As part of this, we will host a one-hour webinar each day at 1pm. Each webinar will focus on the different features of PastureBase to equip you with the know-how to achieve grazing excellence in 2023. See detailed info below on the timetable for the week.

When to Apply Early Nitrogen (N)

If you haven't got a spring N plan including slurry and fertiliser, Deirdre Hennessy has put together great advice on when to spread, what to spread and how much to spread to ensure you get the best grass growth response for the benefit of your pocket and the environment. 

Click Here To Read More

PastureBase Week January 2023

PastureBase Week January 2023 poster, details in text below image

Monday, 16th January | 1pm

Registering, Setting up paddocks & farm mapping

Starting off the week, Monday’s session will be for people who are new to PastureBase Ireland. We will begin by showing you how to get registered on PastureBase Ireland. We then will move on to setting up the different paddocks on your grazing block and creating a farm map.

Tuesday, 17th January | 1pm
Completing a grass walk & key terminology

On Tuesday, we will begin by completing a grass walk both on the desktop version and also on the PastureBase app. Once this is completed we will help you to understand the key terminology that is on the weekly wedge.

Wednesday, 18th January | 1pm
Projected Planner & making decisions off your grass wedge

Moving on to Wednesday, we start getting into more detail with your PastureBase grass wedge. Firstly we will look at the projected planner which helps you to run scenarios for your farm throughout the grazing season. We then will look at the other tools and targets for the different times of the year which will help to make better decisions when it comes to grazing management on your farm.

Thursday, 19th January | 1pm
Rotation planners, grass budget & soil sampling

On Thursday, we will show you how rotation planners help to plan certain areas to graze at different times of the year. The grass budget is also a very popular tool that aids in planning out grazing, particularly in the spring and autumn of the year. We will also introduce you to the soil sampling recording area on PastureBase which will lead us into the area of nutrient management in Friday’s session.

Friday 20th January | 1pm
Fertiliser and slurry recording & clover management

Lastly on Friday, we will look at nutrient management side of PastureBase Ireland which is becoming increasingly important as we move into an era of lower N use. We will start with showing you how to record slurry, chemical fertiliser, FYM and dairy washings on both the desktop and the app. We will then show you how to view the different reports to view total applications throughout a given year.

To finish we will look at the area of clover management where we will show you how to record different levels of clover in paddocks so as to leave it easier for N management throughout the year.

Register Here for PastureBase week

PastureBase Week recordings