Agriland visited the farm of Brian and Peter Kelly just outside Carrickmacross in Co. Monaghan to see how their grassland management is fairing out this spring.

Peter left his off farm job a number of years ago to return to his father's dairy enterprise, where he is now milking 125 cows on a 43ha milking platform with his father Brian, and his 11-year-old son James.

Since returning, the farm has undergone strategic investments in terms of breeding, infrastructure, and soil fertility, as the herd grew by more than 30 cows.

The Kellys invested in heat detection collars, allowing them to implement stricter breeding protocols for their sexed semen, which Brian has been using for the past 15 years.

By only using sexed semen on heifers/cows with solids over 500kg, as well as the uptake in synchronised heifers, the herd averaged 530kg mild solids (MS) in the 2025 season on 1,100kg of meal.

Investing in infrastructure and soil fertility has also allowed the Kellys improve their grassland management, especially in the shoulders of the year.

The Kellys hosted a group of local farmers during the week for one of Teagasc's Grass10 spring grazing farm walks, to demonstrate how their season is going so far.

Spring grazing

Given the wet start to the year, spring grazing across the country has being hugely affected.

However, there was a welcome sight on the Monaghan farm this week as the Kellys finally got cows out to grass.

Peter admitted that the good weather in the back end of last year meant he ended up slightly overgrazing, with an opening farm cover of 744kg dry matter (DM)/ha this year.

This, combined with a surplus of silage in the yard and a slightly later calving start date, meant the Kellys were not too worried about early spring grazing in February.

Now that he does have cows out, Peter plans to continue meeting targets aligned with his spring rotation planner and grass budget, aiming to have a full rotation done by mid-April.

As it stands, the cows are going into paddocks with average cover of 600kg DM/ha.

The cows are let out hungry into allocated blocks, however Peter was not overly happy with the clean out of the grazed paddocks, but it must be considered that freshly calved cows will not have a full appetite yet.

To minimise damage, the Kellys let cows in one gap and bring them out another.

It was noted on the day that the Kellys were setting up their blocks to allow for water access, but in reality if cows are only out for 2-3 hours, water should not be a big concern.

The Teagasc advisers, John-Joe Collins and Leanne Conaty, reminded farmers that some damage will be done on the first grazing as heifers in the herd will be excited and jumping around.

Peter Kelly also noted how he sacrificed a paddock during a bad spring one year that he knew was going to be reseeded later in the season, and stated that it recovered very quickly before the reseeding.

However, spring grazing does require balance; a huge proportion of farmers across the country will not be able to get cows out to grass for another while.

But having a positive mindset and a plan in place will allow them to get cows out once an opportunity presents itself.

Soil fertility

Since returning to the farm, Peter has also put an emphasis on improving soil fertility.

More than half of the farm now has optimum soil pH. Half of the farm is also in index 3 and 4 for phosphorus, while more than two thirds of the farm is in index 3 and 4 for potassium.

The Kellys were able to get slurry out on an out-block using a piping system during a dry stint.

However, like every other farm in the country, they have not been able to get any fertiliser out, meaning some of the heavier pastures are starting to get a yellowish tinge as nutrients deplete.

The advisers reminded farmers to have fertiliser ready in the yards, especially as there is a dry spell forecast for early March where people may be able to get nutrients out in drier fields.