The importance of keeping up with reseeding was the key take-away message from the Teagasc reseeding event held in Kilkenny last week. Host farmers Pat and Una Dillon from Cuffesgrange near Kilkenny city have been consistently reseeding 10% of the milking platform and 12.5% of the silage block each year.
Teagasc adviser Nigel Kennington says that the return from reseeding is an extra 2.5t to 3t DM/ha/year and that newly reseeded swards are 25% more responsive to nitrogen than older swards. He said that based on this, reseeding will pay for itself in just two years.
The Dillons are milking around 130 cows on a 40ha milking platform which is a stocking rate of 3.3 cows/ha, down from around 3.7 cows/ha for the last few years. Pat says he reduced the stocking rate a bit to take some pressure off of the farm.
Last week the farm was growing 36kg/day, down from 62kg/day the previous week. Pat had two paddocks taken out for reseeding and had cut one paddock for bales giving a cover per cow of 197kg, which is exactly where he wants to be.
“We’re allocating 17kg of grass dry matter per day, plus they’re getting 3.5kg of meal in the parlour. They’re milking 29l per cow per day at 4.29% fat and 3.57% which is 2.36kg MS/cow so we’re happy with that. We were feeding 7kg of meal up to recently and when we dropped to 3.5kg they didn’t drop in milk, just levelled off when we reduced the meal,” Pat says.
Teagasc adviser Nigel says that the farm has grown an average of 12.9t DM/ha over the last four years, but that has ranged from 11.6t DM last year to the best year when the farm grew over 14t DM/ha. So far this year Pat has 56 units of nitrogen spread per acre, but is spreading 30 units/acre after grazing in the second rotation.
Nigel says that nationally just 2% of the grassland is reseeded annually, which is well below the 10% target. He says that even among efficient dairy farmers, the rate of reseeding is lower than it should be.
“When we look at Teagasc profit monitors, we would expect that reseeding costs would come in at about €44 per cow but when we look at profit monitor data for farmers in the local region, the average spend is about €20/cow on reseeding, so there is scope for improvement. I know fodder has been scarce for the last few years and weather was another factor, but it’s an area farmers need to work on,” he says.
On reseeding, Pat says it’s part and parcel of what he does every year;
“I treat it like any other job like milking, AI or silage. I’m ready for it when growth takes off. I always do it in the beginning of the year. I find that if you wait until the back end of the year the field is more or less out of production until the following March.
“When I was stocked heavier it was harder to take the land out of production and there was times that I had to feed silage if growth dropped, but the benefit you get when the ground comes back in is enormous. You could have 10 acres reseeded but the bounce in growth from that field for the rest of the year would be like getting an extra 20 acres,” he says.
The costs of reseeding outlined by Nigel are detailed in Table 1. Total costs excluding the cost of fertiliser and cost of spreading fertiliser is €851/ha or €344/acre. When fertiliser costs are included the costs come to €1,091/ha or €442/acre.
This is based on a full plough, level and sow regime with cultivating costs coming in at €356/ha or €144/acre. Other, less intensive methods will be cheaper and it’s also worth noting that under the nitrates rules, ploughing of grassland can only take place between 1 March and 31 May.
The field was stil a bit too green but the seed bed was fine and firm.
Also speaking at the event was Teagasc grass varieties researcher Tomás Tubritt who is based in Moorepark. He advised farmers against using cheaper types of glyphosate when spraying off fields for reseeding. The advice from Tomás was to avoid using generic glyphosate products and to instead use products with higher rates of glyphosate. Roundup Flex was mentioned as a good product to use when reseeding.
“Skipping any process in reseeding can save money but more often than not that is a penny-wise and pound-foolish approach whether that’s in cultivation or spraying.
“You’ll be looking at the sward for the next 10 years and regretting not spending that little bit extra to get it right,” he says.
On the different methods of reseeding, Tomás says there is not much difference between any of the methods once they are done right. He says the ideal seed bed for grass seeds is a fine and firm seedbed. He says ploughing can create a very fine seedbed but oftentimes its not very firm whereas he says discing can create a very firm seedbed but sometimes its not very fine.
Teagasc advisor Nigel Kennington, host farmer Pat Dillon and Tomas Tubritt from Moorepark at the Teagasc reseeding event.
The method used by Pat Dillon is minimum tillage using a one-pass consisting of an Alpego rotavator/stone burier and seed drill. The fields being sown on the day of the event last Thursday had been sprayed off with Roundup Flex on Monday 7 April. The field was cut for bale silage the day before it was sown.
The base of the sward was still a bit green and Nigel said he would prefer to see it fully died off before cultivating. Pat says he agrees, but that there was a weather window to get it done so he said he would take it. To be fair, it has been wet almost every day since so it was probably the right decision.
Pat had the use of the contractor’s heavy Watson roller to roll the fields after they were sown which will help with seed to soil contact.
The varieties chosen by Pat for this year’s reseeding on the grazing platform are Aberspey, Aberclyde and Abermagic along with 2kg of Buddy white clover. According to Tomás Tubritt all varieties on the Teagasc Pasture Profit Index (PPI) are good varieties;
“All of the varieties Pat has chosen are three or four stars for grazing utilisation. It’s hard to justify using varieties with just one or two stars for grazing utilisation in a grazing mix. On quality, the range in the PPI list is between €25 and €65/ha for quality traits and I would be inclined to use varieties that are at least €20/ha for quality.
Pat Dillon's field after being reseeded
“All of the varieties on the PPI are good varieties. Aspect is at the bottom of the list but it’s still a good variety. Put it this way, the list is like senior hurling division. There are plenty of other grass varieties available that are more like junior B and should be avoided,” he says.
Tomás also says that heading date is less important when choosing a grazing mixture, particularly where grassland management is good because grasses won’t get the chance to go to seed. However, he says a close heading date of four to five days difference is very important for silage mixtures.
The varieties chosen by Pat for the silage fields are 3kg Nashota, 3kg Ballintoy and 3kg of Gracehill along with 2kg each of Fearga and Roseta red clover. Pat takes three cuts of silage from the silage ground, so the first cut will be taken as high quality round bales in early May. After this, the field for reseeding will be allowed to green up before being sprayed with glyphosate.
Pat Dillon and Nigel Kennington
When died back enough it will be reseeded using the same method as on the grazing ground. He says there are no animals on this land during the summer so the first cut is taken when the new seeds are very light, getting just 1.5 bales/acre, but he says it’s important to cut it to encourage more tillering.
In brief
Just 2% of the grassland in Ireland is reseeded annually while the target is 10%. Pat Dillon is milking 130 cows near Kilkenny city and is stocked at around 3.3 cows/ha. He reseeds 10% of the grazing block each year and 12.5% or one eight of the silage block each year. The importance of picking good varieties and not skimping on any part of the process was emphasised at the reseeding event. 
The Dillon's herd of high EBI cows do over 500kg MS/cow annually.
The Alpego machine in action at the reseeding event
The importance of keeping up with reseeding was the key take-away message from the Teagasc reseeding event held in Kilkenny last week. Host farmers Pat and Una Dillon from Cuffesgrange near Kilkenny city have been consistently reseeding 10% of the milking platform and 12.5% of the silage block each year.
Teagasc adviser Nigel Kennington says that the return from reseeding is an extra 2.5t to 3t DM/ha/year and that newly reseeded swards are 25% more responsive to nitrogen than older swards. He said that based on this, reseeding will pay for itself in just two years.
The Dillons are milking around 130 cows on a 40ha milking platform which is a stocking rate of 3.3 cows/ha, down from around 3.7 cows/ha for the last few years. Pat says he reduced the stocking rate a bit to take some pressure off of the farm.
Last week the farm was growing 36kg/day, down from 62kg/day the previous week. Pat had two paddocks taken out for reseeding and had cut one paddock for bales giving a cover per cow of 197kg, which is exactly where he wants to be.
“We’re allocating 17kg of grass dry matter per day, plus they’re getting 3.5kg of meal in the parlour. They’re milking 29l per cow per day at 4.29% fat and 3.57% which is 2.36kg MS/cow so we’re happy with that. We were feeding 7kg of meal up to recently and when we dropped to 3.5kg they didn’t drop in milk, just levelled off when we reduced the meal,” Pat says.
Teagasc adviser Nigel says that the farm has grown an average of 12.9t DM/ha over the last four years, but that has ranged from 11.6t DM last year to the best year when the farm grew over 14t DM/ha. So far this year Pat has 56 units of nitrogen spread per acre, but is spreading 30 units/acre after grazing in the second rotation.
Nigel says that nationally just 2% of the grassland is reseeded annually, which is well below the 10% target. He says that even among efficient dairy farmers, the rate of reseeding is lower than it should be.
“When we look at Teagasc profit monitors, we would expect that reseeding costs would come in at about €44 per cow but when we look at profit monitor data for farmers in the local region, the average spend is about €20/cow on reseeding, so there is scope for improvement. I know fodder has been scarce for the last few years and weather was another factor, but it’s an area farmers need to work on,” he says.
On reseeding, Pat says it’s part and parcel of what he does every year;
“I treat it like any other job like milking, AI or silage. I’m ready for it when growth takes off. I always do it in the beginning of the year. I find that if you wait until the back end of the year the field is more or less out of production until the following March.
“When I was stocked heavier it was harder to take the land out of production and there was times that I had to feed silage if growth dropped, but the benefit you get when the ground comes back in is enormous. You could have 10 acres reseeded but the bounce in growth from that field for the rest of the year would be like getting an extra 20 acres,” he says.
The costs of reseeding outlined by Nigel are detailed in Table 1. Total costs excluding the cost of fertiliser and cost of spreading fertiliser is €851/ha or €344/acre. When fertiliser costs are included the costs come to €1,091/ha or €442/acre.
This is based on a full plough, level and sow regime with cultivating costs coming in at €356/ha or €144/acre. Other, less intensive methods will be cheaper and it’s also worth noting that under the nitrates rules, ploughing of grassland can only take place between 1 March and 31 May.
The field was stil a bit too green but the seed bed was fine and firm.
Also speaking at the event was Teagasc grass varieties researcher Tomás Tubritt who is based in Moorepark. He advised farmers against using cheaper types of glyphosate when spraying off fields for reseeding. The advice from Tomás was to avoid using generic glyphosate products and to instead use products with higher rates of glyphosate. Roundup Flex was mentioned as a good product to use when reseeding.
“Skipping any process in reseeding can save money but more often than not that is a penny-wise and pound-foolish approach whether that’s in cultivation or spraying.
“You’ll be looking at the sward for the next 10 years and regretting not spending that little bit extra to get it right,” he says.
On the different methods of reseeding, Tomás says there is not much difference between any of the methods once they are done right. He says the ideal seed bed for grass seeds is a fine and firm seedbed. He says ploughing can create a very fine seedbed but oftentimes its not very firm whereas he says discing can create a very firm seedbed but sometimes its not very fine.
Teagasc advisor Nigel Kennington, host farmer Pat Dillon and Tomas Tubritt from Moorepark at the Teagasc reseeding event.
The method used by Pat Dillon is minimum tillage using a one-pass consisting of an Alpego rotavator/stone burier and seed drill. The fields being sown on the day of the event last Thursday had been sprayed off with Roundup Flex on Monday 7 April. The field was cut for bale silage the day before it was sown.
The base of the sward was still a bit green and Nigel said he would prefer to see it fully died off before cultivating. Pat says he agrees, but that there was a weather window to get it done so he said he would take it. To be fair, it has been wet almost every day since so it was probably the right decision.
Pat had the use of the contractor’s heavy Watson roller to roll the fields after they were sown which will help with seed to soil contact.
The varieties chosen by Pat for this year’s reseeding on the grazing platform are Aberspey, Aberclyde and Abermagic along with 2kg of Buddy white clover. According to Tomás Tubritt all varieties on the Teagasc Pasture Profit Index (PPI) are good varieties;
“All of the varieties Pat has chosen are three or four stars for grazing utilisation. It’s hard to justify using varieties with just one or two stars for grazing utilisation in a grazing mix. On quality, the range in the PPI list is between €25 and €65/ha for quality traits and I would be inclined to use varieties that are at least €20/ha for quality.
Pat Dillon's field after being reseeded
“All of the varieties on the PPI are good varieties. Aspect is at the bottom of the list but it’s still a good variety. Put it this way, the list is like senior hurling division. There are plenty of other grass varieties available that are more like junior B and should be avoided,” he says.
Tomás also says that heading date is less important when choosing a grazing mixture, particularly where grassland management is good because grasses won’t get the chance to go to seed. However, he says a close heading date of four to five days difference is very important for silage mixtures.
The varieties chosen by Pat for the silage fields are 3kg Nashota, 3kg Ballintoy and 3kg of Gracehill along with 2kg each of Fearga and Roseta red clover. Pat takes three cuts of silage from the silage ground, so the first cut will be taken as high quality round bales in early May. After this, the field for reseeding will be allowed to green up before being sprayed with glyphosate.
Pat Dillon and Nigel Kennington
When died back enough it will be reseeded using the same method as on the grazing ground. He says there are no animals on this land during the summer so the first cut is taken when the new seeds are very light, getting just 1.5 bales/acre, but he says it’s important to cut it to encourage more tillering.
In brief
Just 2% of the grassland in Ireland is reseeded annually while the target is 10%. Pat Dillon is milking 130 cows near Kilkenny city and is stocked at around 3.3 cows/ha. He reseeds 10% of the grazing block each year and 12.5% or one eight of the silage block each year. The importance of picking good varieties and not skimping on any part of the process was emphasised at the reseeding event.
The Dillon's herd of high EBI cows do over 500kg MS/cow annually.
The Alpego machine in action at the reseeding event
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