Some heavy rain after last week’s dry spell has helped sustain or even increase growth in some cases. At the minute, growth is ahead of the long term average for the majority of the country.

Mowers and balers were aplenty last week, so here is hoping that some of those stemmy paddocks got whipped out in the fine weather and are now sitting in the yard as top-quality feed for winter.

Usually there is a period around mid-summer in which a round of fertiliser can be skipped. Between some background nitrogen and clover in swards there should be sufficient N there to keep growth ticking along; unless you are chasing cover or bales than the throttle can be eased back on spreading.

Assessing paddocks for clover content might not be a bad idea when doing grass walks, as it should be easily identifiable this time of the year. Paddocks with a clover content above 40% can be skipped entirely this round, while those under it can receive a half rate, be it straight N or some P and K. A bag of 10-10-20/acre on some low index soils may not be a bad choice.

Peter Doyle – Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath

We have one paddock being taken out for silage this week. Overall, growth is matching demand and we are back on target with our pre grazing yield of 1,400-1,500kg DM/ha.

With the dry spell earlier in May, like a lot of farms a lot of our paddocks all came together. As we couldn’t afford to take them all out in bales, we ended up grazing some heavy covers. For this reason, we will do one round of topping on paddocks that have not been baled to bring quality back to where it should be.

Our red clover silage ground will be mown in the first or second week of July for second-cut, weather dependant. Breeding is set to finish up on Friday 4 July after nine weeks.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 740

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 59

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 64

Niall O’Meara – Killimor, Co Galway

The weather is excellent for growth at the minute, but just not ideal for taking out some surplus paddocks. I have four or five paddocks that I’m hoping to take out in the next few days, and following this I will be mowing some second cut ground in about 10 days time.

I have skipped a round of nitrogen as I did not need to push growth further, while the white clover that I have incorporated in to swards by stitching over the last few years is working well.

The April stitching is being grazed at lower covers, while the May stitching has germinated nicely. Some 0-7-30 has been spread on silage ground to help bring up indexes. Bulls were weighed recently and are gaining 1.6kg/head/day post weaning.

System Suckler to weanling

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 820

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 74

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 48

Mark Maxwell – Ballinagore, Co Westmeath

Our farm cover is on the high side, but I am hoping to get a paddock mown out this week now to help bring this back under control. As well as this, I’m looking to increase demand on the grazing block to curtail cover.

The last of the dairy beef calves are being weaned, while the older calves who are receiving meal twice a day will be cut back to 1kg fed once a day to increase their appetite for grass.

Grass quality did suffer a little over the last few weeks. I plan on topping some paddocks, letting them grow on a bit first and then baling up the toppings to reduce wastage; having my own machinery allows me to do this.

I will be drafting for the factory soon again, having done so in early June.

System Suckler to beef

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 1,111

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 45

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 35