Grass Measuring

delaval

TEAT SQUEEZER wrote: »

a couple of references to 14 day rotations ... the majority of the paddocks growthh comes in the final week as the plant pushes out its 3rd leaf... so i wonder is there alot of quality grass left un grown and hence un used ... delaval a demand of 68 x 14 only gives u a pre grazing yield of 1050 incl, 100 residual , to me thats sailing close to the wind...are your cows burning up loads of energy just to fill themselves.. have seen a scenario where this happened ..

That's at growth rates of 100 or more, and how often does that happen? We would be sailing as close as we can to the edge and it occasionally goes wrong:mad::mad:

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

That's at growth rates of 100 or more, and how often does that happen? We would be sailing as close as we can to the edge and it occasionally goes wrong:mad::mad:

is it just me or used the grass grow faster in years gone by. probably got my rose tinted glasses on but remember the grass growing like stink during the months of may and june years ago. we havnt had a good grass growing year since when?

delaval

Bob our records would tend to back up what your saying, however we seem to be growing more annually with less and shorter highs.

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

Bob our records would tend to back up what your saying, however we seem to be growing more annually with less and shorter highs.

More shoulder growth or a flatter mid season growth curve. Suppose stocking rates werent as high in times gone by so made it look like grass used to grow more. Fert was also @ £150 a ton, maybe that was the reason. Remember being short of grass years ago and giving a field 60units for grazing, it turned blue and had grass over night. Know of two farmers who used to spread a bag of Urea christmas week without fail

delaval

bob charles wrote: »

More shoulder growth or a flatter mid season growth curve. Suppose stocking rates werent as high in times gone by so made it look like grass used to grow more. Fert was also @ £150 a ton, maybe that was the reason. Remember being short of grass years ago and giving a field 60units for grazing, it turned blue and had grass over night. Know of two farmers who used to spread a bag of Urea christmas week without fail

Was that soldier;)

delaval

Any of the new guys to grass measuring do a cover yet?

49801

Ppl using paper based, excel or an app for calculations?

whelan1

agrinet

td5man

delaval wrote: »

Any of the new guys to grass measuring do a cover yet?

No!

whelan1

if its anything like around here there's nothing to measure:D

td5man

whelan1 wrote: »

if its anything like around here there's nothing to measure:D

Thats what i was thinking

whelan1

td5man wrote: »

Thats what i was thinking

did you walk yours at all?

td5man

whelan1 wrote: »

did you walk yours at all?

WALK!!! The ground is wet here again,the fields are greening but f*** all cover on them. If there was a bit more heat growth would take off rapidly.
Have to clean and resurface a neighbours roadway next week before he lets his cows out,suppose i'll have to put mine out as well

delaval

How are you to know what ye have?

I bet you know how much meal in bin, silage in pit etc. but don't know what feed is in the fields???

td5man

delaval wrote: »

How are you to know what ye have?

I bet you know how much meal in bin, silage in pit etc. but don't know what feed is in the fields???

Dont remind me about the meal bin its nearly empty again
Ive been round most of the farm and there aint a lot of grass.

delaval

td5man wrote: »

Dont remind me about the meal bin its nearly empty again
Ive been round most of the farm and there aint a lot of grass.

I think there's a hole in ours or a meal theif in the area:eek::eek:

td5man

delaval wrote: »

I think there's a hole in ours or a meal theif in the area:eek::eek:

The only thief is the lad selling it.:D

mf240

Is grass measuring the new religion. It has all the hall marks.

The church of teagasc, grass grows in mysterious ways, or going by what I see on some dairy farms its more like the miracle of the loaves and fishes feeding the 5000.

Timmaay

mf240 wrote: »

Is grass measuring the new religion. It has all the hall marks.

Actually going out and measuring it, I'm guessing that is new enough? Or have many of yous (delaval/stan etc) been measuring with years, before all this talk of expansion came?

But one thing is for sure, the basic principles have been preached by teagasc, and practiced by alot of farmers for years, we have always had paddocks on our farm, some sort of spring rotation plan would be carried out, no measure or detailed budgeting done but it would work out ok most years, over the summer just keep on rotating the paddocks, how close to 21days we use to get I couldn't tell ya. I think the idea of keeping covers over the winter is a new enough concept though? Certainly something that we never really really did!

As delaval said earlier in this thread, apart from helping grass budgeting, where grass measuring really shows its worth is spotting poor paddocks, we all have the good paddocks which we like to brag about or whatever ha, that probably grow between 10/15tons dm per year, its the poor ones that ya need to look after! For the dairypeople, land limiting your milk output instead of quotas in the future means every paddock has to work for ya!

delaval

We started in 2006 and have all records. We used to use the teagasc program but have since moved to agrinet and find brilliant.

We have been on expansion since about 2004 and the one thing that helped most along with AI was grass measuring.

One season measuring and you will never make a grazing decision without this info. I can't thin of any new technology that is as cheap. All you need is a pencil, notebook, calculator and a rain coat if raining. Nowadays a phone and a coat!!

loveta

delaval wrote: »

We started in 2006 and have all records. We used to use the teagasc program but have since moved to agrinet and find brilliant.

We have been on expansion since about 2004 and the one thing that helped most along with AI was grass measuring.

One season measuring and you will never make a grazing decision without this info. I can't thin of any new technology that is as cheap. All you need is a pencil, notebook, calculator and a rain coat if raining. Nowadays a phone and a coat!!

Just wondering what was the average date since 2006 of your magic day last year it was well into may up here with us.

delaval

When do you start calving?

Our's would be mid April. We also calve winter milkers and let them out at same time. I recon in this area and on our land we could start calving mid-last week Jan if we were in all spring.

I think a lot of people on later land are calving too early leading to a ot of extra supplementation.

loveta

same as that we start calving in september but land is heavy up our end we can grow it but grazing it ...........well thats a whole different ball game ground is very wet here at the moment no way could you graze it

delaval

loveta wrote: »

same as that we start calving in september but land is heavy up our end we can grow it but grazing it ...........well thats a whole different ball game ground is very wet here at the moment no way could you graze it

Sounds to me like you now what you're doing. Is your winter attrecting a premium?

Could you consider calving say Oct and get a month extra summer grazing in the next year?

quader

any one using a plate meter and d o ye find it any good

loveta

delaval wrote: »

Sounds to me like you now what you're doing. Is your winter attrecting a premium?

Could you consider calving say Oct and get a month extra summer grazing in the next year?

Actually moving to later back end calving
Getting a small premium 5 cents for November and Feb and 4 cents for December and Jan but feed bill this year is crazy

whelan1

those of ye with the cows out fulltime, when will your first rotation be finished , what is your wedge looking like , will ye be in trouble for grass soon???? Whats the contingency(sp) plan?

delaval

quader wrote: »

any one using a plate meter and d o ye find it any good

Used to have one gave it away. They are expensive and inaccurate in higher covers>1200 and really only useful for post grazing yield. I would paint a few lines on my willies before I'd use one again. I think they did more to confuse people re. grass measuring than anything else.

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

those of ye with the cows out fulltime, when will your first rotation be finished , what is your wedge looking like , will ye be in trouble for grass soon???? Whats the contingency(sp) plan?

We started off the last third of our grazing today. Covers range from 900-1300, we will stretch till first days of April.

Wedge is irrevelant at this time of year. We only use wedge in main growing season. For now it's about allocating area each day. The cover on this area is there because of decisions at last backend....hence the importance of measuring and budgeting.

Our contingency is to come in with silage. That decision is a bit off yet. Silage is an absolute last resort here as it is pure poison for protein, that is unless you have some high quality round bales.

The ground they are grazing was last grazed in Nov and Dec. It has since got 3000 gallons lagoon slurry in early Jan and 1 bag urea 3 wks ago

I am not overly concerned yet as this is typical March weather. Soil temp today was 5 and we are growing 12/day our demand at the moment is 25 as all cows are not calved and at grass. We are also feeding 4 kg 12% nut in parlor, this of course would be increased before we would consider silage.

mahoney_j

whelan1 wrote: »

those of ye with the cows out fulltime, when will your first rotation be finished , what is your wedge looking like , will ye be in trouble for grass soon???? Whats the contingency(sp) plan?

Will be able to stretch it till april 6 i hope,Contingency plan is high quality wraps which i introduced last sunday night,cOWS CAN COME DOWN FOR THIS AT IGHT ONLY AND ARE CURRENTLY EATING 1 bale every 2 nights.Not panacking just yet but would like to see a flush of growth fairly soon

whelan1

saw farming forecast today, looks ****e... thought there was to be an improvement after tuesday

td5man

whelan1 wrote: »

saw farming forecast today, looks ****e... thought there was to be an improvement after tuesday

Heavy rain Thursday Fri temperature looks to be staying low until end of the month

delaval

td5man wrote: »

Heavy rain Thursday Fri temperature looks to be staying low until end of the month

Typical March weather so nothing to worry about.

delaval

mahoney_j wrote: »

Will be able to stretch it till april 6 i hope,Contingency plan is high quality wraps which i introduced last sunday night,cOWS CAN COME DOWN FOR THIS AT IGHT ONLY AND ARE CURRENTLY EATING 1 bale every 2 nights.Not panacking just yet but would like to see a flush of growth fairly soon

If they are eating half bale per day high quality silage, shows how good early spring grass is..........so heads up everyone, commit to measure and budget for this season and you'll have grass this time next year. There is no doubt that grazed grass = profit;););)

49801

49801 wrote: »

Ppl using paper based, excel or an app for calculations?

whelan1 wrote: »

agrinet

Is that a web only app?
I.e. do u have to have 3G signal?

Or do you enter data on the office PC?

Timmaay

49801 wrote: »

Is that a web only app?
I.e. do u have to have 3G signal?

Or do you enter data on the office PC?

Just jot down the covers in the paddocks on a scrap of paper when your doing the walk and enter it into agrinet back in the office. For anyone who is just dipping their toes in the whole grass measuring I'd still suggest you use the very simple teagasc grass wedge sheet, its an A4 sheet of paper that ya fire in the covers, and it spits out a similar result to agrinet without the slightly steeper learning curve, over time when ya get your head around the whole grass measurement, agrinet speeds up everything, and lets you see best paddocks etc at the end of the year!

49801

Timmaay wrote: »

Just jot down the covers in the paddocks on a scrap of paper when your doing the walk and enter it into agrinet back in the office. For anyone who is just dipping their toes in the whole grass measuring I'd still suggest you use the very simple teagasc grass wedge sheet, its an A4 sheet of paper that ya fire in the covers, and it spits out a similar result to agrinet without the slightly steeper learning curve, over time when ya get your head around the whole grass measurement, agrinet speeds up everything, and lets you see best paddocks etc at the end of the year!

Thanks.

Does the wedge work for unequal field sizes ?
We have 15 acres fields (silage) as well as 2.5, 5, 6, 3 etc

whelan1

49801 wrote: »

Thanks.

Does the wedge work for unequal field sizes ?
We have 15 acres fields (silage) as well as 2.5, 5, 6, 3 etc

yes

whelan1

what is regrowth like on fields that have been grazed first?

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

what is regrowth like on fields that have been grazed first?

150-400 normal growth for March

Tipp Man

Not much grass to measure either before or after grazing

Tipp Man

Grazing them fairly tight

Tipp Man

A finished paddock

just do it

Tipp Man wrote: »

Not much grass to measure either before or after grazing

Out of interest do you consider the grazed field to be poached. It can be hard to judge in photos. It's fine line/ judgement between normal hoof marks and lightly poached!

Tipp Man

just do it wrote: »

Out of interest do you consider the grazed field to be poached. It can be hard to judge in photos. It's fine line/ judgement between normal hoof marks and lightly poached!

Wouldn't consider it poached but wouldn't want any more damage done to it than that

delaval

Tipp Man wrote: »

Grazing them fairly tight

Good work that's that paddock set up for the season

delaval

What a beautiful day! Did a cover this am Afc 549; cover /cow 261; 15 growth.

Looks like we are ok for next 3 wks!! Sold pit of silage today, my neighbour is stuck and asked me a few weeks ago, I was afraid to 'till we measured today.

All grazed ground will get 2500 gls slurry in next few days

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

Good work that's that paddock set up for the season

agreed, overstocking is a gift at this time of the year when we graze the ass out of it.

Kileir

Question for the experienced grass measuring folk - how do these figures look as a general guide for someone like myself who's thinking of measuring grass this year? Are these figures close enough for a beginner. ?

GRASS HEIGHT CM KG DM HA
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 150
5 400
6 650
7 900
8 1100
9 1300
10 1600
11 1850
12 2100

delaval

Kileir wrote: »

Question for the experienced grass measuring folk - how do these figures look as a general guide for someone like myself who's thinking of measuring grass this year? Are these figures close enough for a beginner. ?

GRASS HEIGHT CM KG DM HA
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 150
5 400
6 650
7 900
8 1100
9 1300
10 1600
11 1850
12 2100

You made me go find tape:):)
I'd say your not far off the mark. For a beginner I suggest use the following
150-400.....300
400-700.....500
700-1000....850
1k--1300.....1100
You won't be too far off;);)