The Weather

whelan1

just after walking the farm, have some covers of 15-1600 , would have enough grass for 3 weeks if the weather was right :rolleyes: haven't opened the pit yet but cows are poaching a bit in a few of the paddocks, hows every one fixed? They are just getting 1.5kg of dairy nuts in the parlour 19%

Pharaoh1

OP I'm lucky to have dry land that is holding up fairly well and growth in the last 2-3 weeks has been exceptional.
Downside was poor growth during the summer.
A related question on the value of grass at this time of year.
All the local (mostly beef) farmers parrott the same line on grass during wettish weather this time of year with stuff like "there is no feeding in that wet grass" and "sure it is only running through them"

Yet I read in the Journal yesterday that some of the dairy experts are feeding only grazed grass and the herd is milking well and you I presume are milking ok without silage or large quantities of meal/nuts.

I'm feeding my beef stores 2kg of a 13% just to keep them growing easy to handle and conditioned for sale in maybe 3-4 weeks. A neighbour with similar plans to sell is feeding 10kg a head. When I questioned the economics of this I got the "but theres no feeding at all in that grass" line.
So what's the truth - I presume its all down to the DM in the grass - would it be that much reduced compared to say mid August.

blue5000

Have closed about 25% of the farm at this stage, some of the rest on dry fields has over 2000 kgs/ha on it. Grazing ground now that will have to get slurry before the cut off date. Will probably house in-calf heifers over the weekend, they are cleaning up after cows+calves and are losing condition.

Still have to graze kale, will try leave that for a month before putting cows with late calves on it.

keep going

For once i have to agree with Teagsc and say we have the best climate for growing grass-but one of the worst for utilizing it.I think i kind of agree with those boys and think abit of feed is good with autumn grass,like to feed a bit of straw from now on just takes the hunger off them.has to be dry though if it gets wet they wont eat it. I dried off a couple of cows a few weeks ago put them on a out farm with heifers but i think the ones at home milking are nearly doing better.

raindodger

upside of this messy weather it will help with the levy.
but think the feed value in grass is not there .
Do you notice animals never seem to be happy with what they have.........much like people

keep going

couple of fields of corn to cut around here,not looking good

mjcom4d

Grand

whelan1

keep going wrote: »

couple of fields of corn to cut around here,not looking good

jeeny , thats bad, theres a good bit of straw to be baled around here

bt12

very wet to day, just after housing the incalf heifers
doing too much poaching hopefully they will get out again in a few days

vanderbadger

yep i would say today has finished things off around here, cow probably coming now this week

case 5150

winter has started here also. housed 100 bulls today, walking the grass into the ground

pakalasa

Not weather to be weaning anyway. That's for sure.

leg wax

we sat out on the deck all afternoon and watched the kids play a lovely day here.

dasheriff

Its all over here anyway,i cant remember the last time i saw the sun,i have half the cows in,ill be opening the pit tomorrow and the rest will be in by friday, 3 weeks ahead of last year:(..

johngalway

leg wax wrote: »

we sat out on the deck all afternoon and watched the kids play a lovely day here.

You bit the bullet and moved to Australia then? They call them verandas over there, wouldn't want the locals looking funny at ya

Miserable murky drizzling day here, not fit for much.

snowman707

torrential non stop rain for the last 48 hours,


home farm holding up fairly well , will change to OAD milking this week to cut down on cow movements ( & hopefully get back within quota) cows getting silage after milking, no meals


incalf heifers and cattle are poaching the out farm and they have been moved to the driest fields , most likely will be housed 2 to 3 weeks earlier than norm, we will leave any uneaten grass for the early ewes after lambing

5live

Very windy here and great drying. Only a short shower yesterday but heavy drizzle on saturday and cows starting to cut up ground. But ground very dry this morning and will have to cut across a grazing paddock to get to a silage field so hope to do it over the next 3 days if the ground stays dry.

Its hard at times to think conditions can be so different a few miles away

whelan1

crappy day here too... cows didnt want to come in this morning and didnt want to go out either, full of grass... disenfecting cubicle sheds this morning and ordering in ration to go in the feeder, other half is trying to get the clock working on the keenan feeder - is at it 2 hours already:D lights are working on the feeder so its some thing with the clock, will just steer clear of him while he's working on it:)

Min

Good drying around here, very mild, the last day we had rain was on the 6th October and only 1mm fell that day, from the 2nd of October to now we just had 5mm of rain, so all the ground has dried out after the heavy rain on the 30th September and 1st October.
Ground conditions are very good here.

dar31

my little corner of the country must of drifted of towards the Mediterranean, this year, been a very dry year here, near drought conditions on 3 occasions.

have 30 dry cows confined to the corner on an average field for the last 10 days and haven't marked a bit of it.
hope it holds out for another week or more till i have all the heavy covers gone.
probably jinxed my self now

caseman

Here in the north west we will be part of the atlantic if it keeps raining.

Pit open this evening cows in, 4 weeks earlier than last year.

Hope rain stops for calves to clean out paddocks.

vanderbadger

fook it,should have put in cows yesterday evening but thought i might get another day or two..seems like a bad night again, place will be in some state by time i get back this evening

leg wax

vanderbadger wrote: »

fook it,should have put in cows yesterday evening but thought i might get another day or two..seems like a bad night again, place will be in some state by time i get back this evening

will i run up and put them in for ya.:rolleyes:

vanderbadger

leg wax wrote: »

will i run up and put them in for ya.:rolleyes:

would you..and keep an eye on a heifer close to calving for me while you are there

leg wax

vanderbadger wrote: »

would you..and keep an eye on a heifer close to calving for me while you are there

i thought you were going to work?:D

vanderbadger

leg wax wrote: »

i thought you were going to work?:D

was at work at that stage, came in early so i can go home early and slosh around the place chasing cows, are you still calling or will I have or will I need a bogey to carry you around

leg wax

vanderbadger wrote: »

was at work at that stage, came in early so i can go home early and slosh around the place chasing cows, are you still calling or will I have or will I need a bogey to carry you around

the children call me the fat lad ,you dont have to start,they used to call me twinkle toes in my younger days,but i dont do sloshing around in the sunny south east :rolleyes:.now the rain will come for sure.:D

Tora Bora

Fed up with this constant rain. Place getting really poached. Stock will have to go in next week latest. Normally put them in last week November.

Reseeded a few acres in late August. Not too impressed with how it has come on to be honest. Not a hope of getting a graze off of it in this weather. Next door has 8 acres sprayed off end August. Conditions too bad to till it since then. Has to leave it now till spring:(

Sprayed few acres of rushes in August. Seem to have got a reasonable kill. Wanted to go in and mow before winter sets in proper, so they would rot down before spring. Not a chance now. Too foooking wet.

whelan1

sun is actually shining here... first time in ages

keep going

whelan1 wrote: »

sun is actually shining here... first time in ages

could put a picture of it up,cant remember what it looks like;)

whelan1

keep going wrote: »

could put a picture of it up,cant remember what it looks like;)

i jinxed myself, we got about half an hour of sunshine:mad:

leg wax

whelan1 wrote: »

i jinxed myself, we got about half an hour of sunshine:mad:

in my teeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shirt still down here.:D

blue5000

Actually dry here with 10 minutes of SUN. Spreading watery slurry here, the tank that collects silage effluent has a fair bit in it.

whelan1

fantastic day here, plenty of drying

whelan1

looks like the northwest will get a battering tomorrow

moy83

The week isnt promised great again :mad: We got a few decent days this week its the first time in weeks that we got three dry days in a row . I think thats as close to an indian summer as we are going to get

whelan1

was really cold this morning .. first morning i really felt the cold , putting cows in tonight... warmed myself up running in the sucklers for hoofcare... 1 bi*ch kept getting away and she was the one that really needed to be done

reilig

whelan1 wrote: »

was really cold this morning .. first morning i really felt the cold , putting cows in tonight... warmed myself up running in the sucklers for hoofcare... 1 bi*ch kept getting away and she was the one that really needed to be done

We put in a load of cows last night. Serious rain yesterday caused a lot of flooding. Less damage done on the slats.

lakill Farm

i put in all any stock i had on my own land yesterday, but anything on rented land is staying put.

I even managed to sell 10 bales of Silage yesterday .

Begob

reilig wrote: »

whelan1 wrote: »

was really cold this morning .. first morning i really felt the cold , putting cows in tonight... warmed myself up running in the sucklers for hoofcare... 1 bi*ch kept getting away and she was the one that really needed to be done

We put in a load of cows last night. Serious rain yesterday caused a lot of flooding. Less damage done on the slats.

not too bad here in wexford.
Rained hard yesterday for a half hour and that was it thank god.
Land is very dry and the well is nearly dry!
cold alright this morning but no frost.Huge grass cover so the cows may stay out by night for a long time yet.
T'wud take a weeks heavy rain for a good few hrs every day to soften the ground with us.

reilig

Begob wrote: »

not too bad here in wexford.
Rained hard yesterday for a half hour and that was it thank god.
Land is very dry and the well is nearly dry!
cold alright this morning but no frost.Huge grass cover so the cows may stay out by night for a long time yet.
T'wud take a weeks heavy rain for a good few hrs every day to soften the ground with us.

We haven't seen 3 dry days in a row since June!! :mad:

MfMan

Begob wrote: »

not too bad here in wexford.
Rained hard yesterday for a half hour and that was it thank god.
Land is very dry and the well is nearly dry!
cold alright this morning but no frost.Huge grass cover so the cows may stay out by night for a long time yet.
T'wud take a weeks heavy rain for a good few hrs every day to soften the ground with us.

Jeez, ye guys are on a different planet! Land here in Galway is saturated. No wonder we're severely disadvantaged!

blue5000

leg wax wrote: »

in my teeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shirt still down here.:D

:D:D:D:D

bet you had more than a teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shirt on today legwax:eek:

johngalway

MfMan wrote: »

Jeez, ye guys are on a different planet! Land here in Galway is saturated. No wonder we're severely disadvantaged!

You can say that again.

red bull

Its more than saturated in north Galway its nearer to liquid soil.All stock housed it will be a long winter at this rate

BeeDI

Being serious, there is a BIG case to be made, for having ALL, CAP money from Europe, paid to farmers west of the Shannon and the north west in general.
The farmers here, boasing about the mediteranian weather they heve been getting, simply don't know didly squat about "disadvantage", and long winters, and poaching, etc,.
Farming in Leinster and south Munster, is a doddle if you ask me.

Tipp Man

BeeDI wrote: »

Being serious, there is a BIG case to be made, for having ALL, CAP money from Europe, paid to farmers west of the Shannon and the north west in general.
The farmers here, boasing about the mediteranian weather they heve been getting, simply don't know didly squat about "disadvantage", and long winters, and poaching, etc,.
Farming in Leinster and south Munster, is a doddle if you ask me.

Ah come on now - all the money west of the Shannon??

I could make a better case for none of the money going west of the Shannon

Edit: note i'm not suggesting this for 1 second

leg wax

blue5000 wrote: »

:D:D:D:D

bet you had more than a teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shirt on today legwax:eek:

loooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg johns on ,some change its dry but cold .

whelan1

BeeDI wrote: »

Being serious, there is a BIG case to be made, for having ALL, CAP money from Europe, paid to farmers west of the Shannon and the north west in general.
The farmers here, boasing about the mediteranian weather they heve been getting, simply don't know didly squat about "disadvantage", and long winters, and poaching, etc,.
Farming in Leinster and south Munster, is a doddle if you ask me.

what a load of crap.... do you believe all you read here? 1 out of how many farmers boasting of dry weather come on now.... although i did read on comment on the sfp thread where the farmer said he didnt need his sfp! Farming in leinster is not a doddle we have heavy land with some bog, its about making the best of what you have in my book

polod

whelan1 wrote: »

what a load of crap.... do you believe all you read here? 1 out of how many farmers boasting of dry weather come on now.... although i did read on comment on the sfp thread where the farmer said he didnt need his sfp! Farming in leinster is not a doddle we have heavy land with some bog, its about making the best of what you have in my book

Your idea of 'heavy' land is a different planet to the farmers in the west and north west. I consider myself to have heavy land ...But then again take a look at some of the feilds in sligo , mayo, leitrim west cavan etc.....thats an eye opener !!

BeeDI

whelan1 wrote: »

what a load of crap.... do you believe all you read here? 1 out of how many farmers boasting of dry weather come on now.... although i did read on comment on the sfp thread where the farmer said he didnt need his sfp! Farming in leinster is not a doddle we have heavy land with some bog, its about making the best of what you have in my book

Whelan, I doubt very much if you really appreciate the amount of rain that falls on in the west compared to the east. It is absolute night and day.
I have family in Dublin and lived there for 8 years. Different cliamate completely.
In the west ............ we don't do tillage, because we can't. It's just not possible with weather and ground conditions.


Look at the official rainfall map from Met Eireann.
The lighter the colour the less amount of rainfall anually.
Where do you fit in?