Grass growth has being rampant over the last two weeks, surpassing demand and leaving many farms in a state of surplus.

However, despite the ideal conditions for grass growth in most of the county, the situation still greatly varies from farm to farm, with a number of operators still in deficits.

Nevertheless, grass availability can change in a matter of days, which highlights the need for consistent grass walks at this time of the year.

Grass walks should be done every four to five days, so decisions can be made around correcting grass quality, or quickening or slowing up the rotation.

Farms with surplus grass need to make decisions on whether or not paddocks should be taken out for bales, or if additional stock such as dry cows can mop up after the milking herd.

It may be worth considering topping or pre-mowing paddocks to ensure the herd is grazing quality 3-leaf stage grass with a cover of 1,400kg dry matter (DM)/ha.

If cows start entering paddocks with grazing covers over 1,500kg DM/ha, a drop in protein may be a direct consequence.

Grass growth

Grass growth last week according to Pasturebase Ireland was at 68kg DM/ha/day with the average dairy farm sitting at an average farm cover (AFC) of 736kg DM/ha or 198kg DM/livestock unit (LU).

The typical diet across the country of those who record data on Pasturbase Ireland is 15kg of grass DM with 3.5kg of meal.

Cows were recorded to be entering pre-grazing covers of 1,627kg DM/ha, which is not ideal and may ultimately affect the milk cheque.

This is primarily due to 55% of farms that recorded in Pasturebase last week being over target.

These farms had average farm covers of 789kg DM/ha, meaning cows were entering paddocks with pre grazing yields of 1,711kg DM/ha.

Meanwhile 32% of farms were on target, while a further 13% were in deficits.

At this stage of the season, farmers should ideally be sitting at 160-180kg DM/LU, ensuring cows are grazing covers of 1,300-1,400kg DM/ha.

If cover/LU is over 200kg DM/LU, then demand on the farm needs to be increased, which can be done through feeding less meal or taking paddocks out of the rotation for surplus bales of silage.

If the farm is comfortably over the 160kg DM/LU, then farmers need to ensure that cows are given 36-hour allocations if possible to allow for optimum intakes.

Patton

Head of dairy knowledge transfer at Teagasc, Dr. Joe Patton, recently reminded farmers that cows grazing higher covers at this time of the year fall behind on yield and solids, while grass intake in general is also reduced.

Dr. Patton stressed that grassland management should not be altered based on milk price, stating that the most profitable farms tend to remain the most profitable in high or low milk price years.

He said: “It’s been a tough year in terms of the economics of milk price, but if there is one thing that is going to save you, don’t change too much, get the right targets in place on grazing management, and stick to them."