Significant increase in grass growth predicted

With high pressure expected to dominate over the bank holiday weekend, the Moorepark St. Giles Grass Growth (MoSt GG) model is predicting a significant increase in daily grass growth rates for the coming days.

Published in the weekly Grass10 newsletter and available on the PastureBase Ireland website, average grass growth rates of 90kg DM/ha/day in Ulster, 93kg DM/ha/day in Leinster, 83kg DM/ha/day in Munster, and 90kg/ha/day in Connacht are predicted for May 28 to June 3. Peaking these are predicted grass growth rates of 101kg DM/ha/day in Westmeath, followed by Louth and Galway both at 100kg DM/ha/day.

These grass growth predictions are taken from a number of the pilot farms across the country, which record grass growth and fertiliser application data consistently each year, while weather factors such as soil temperature and rainfall predictions are also included when generating the predicted grass growth figure.

Figure 1: Grass growth predictions (kg DM/ha/day)

In the seven day period up until Tuesday of this week, grass growth rates of 72kg DM/ha/day were recorded on dairy farms and 63kg/DM/day on drystock. At the same time, pre-grazing yields increased to 1,710kg DM/ha on dairy farms and 1,850kg DM/ha on drystock farms. Given the above and with grass growth rates expected to edge near peak, the Teagasc Grass10 team has the following advice:

• Average farm cover (AFC), cover per livestock unit (cover/LU) and rotation length need to be monitored by walking the farm every five days during June;
• There is an immediate possibility to remove one or two paddocks from the rotation for silage, targeting paddocks containing the worst quality grass;
• Aim for a cover/LU of 160-200kg DM/LU or 12-15 days ahead;
• If cover/LU is above 220kg DM/LU, remove one paddock immediately on your farm;
• However, do not get into a full rotation of correcting all paddocks as this will drop growth rates by 20-30 Kg DM/Ha and may leave you in a grass shortage in 10 days.

The weekly Grass10 newsletter also offers advice on managing growth versus demand using PastureBase Ireland, fertiliser for second-cut silage and replenishing off-takes from paddocks where surplus silage is harvested. Access the full weekly Grass10 newsletter here.

Weekly Grass10 update

Joseph Dunphy, Grass10 Advisor, delves into more information on the above as part of this week’s Grass10 grazing management update. He also provides a grass update from Christopher Cahill, who farms in Co. Westmeath.

Listen in below:

Also read: MoSt predicted grass growth in PastureBase Ireland