Grass measuring 2015

Cow Porter

frazzledhome wrote: »

Our cows are at the gap at 2.30 every day let in stand in yard milked at 4 back out but for some reason never at gap in morning, I think their trying it on?

To be fair these were a different breed of cow to yours - higher intake needed.
Sure aren't they all asleep at night......lol

Brown Podzol

just do it wrote: »

Do you need to eat between going to bed and having breakfast?! From what I read that's all he's advocating

A cow giving 25lts uses the same amount of energy relative to a human running the marathon. Do this every day and then find the energy to go in calf. This is what separates the men from the boys. A balancing act between grazing out and energy intake taking into account dry matters etc.

just do it

Brown Podzol wrote: »

A cow giving 25lts uses the same amount of energy relative to a human running the marathon. Do this every day and then find the energy to go in calf. This is what separates the men from the boys. A balancing act between grazing out and energy intake taking into account dry matters etc.

I've ran a few marathons but thankfully have never had to go in-calf .

Buford T. Justice XIX

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

A few Kerry figures...

AFC 921, Demand 26, Growth 5, PGY 1000 Meal 2kgs.

Last years total 14.28t DM/ha

I should have put down that they were kerry average figures, not mine.

I'd be a bit behind those figures and even further behind last year.

Just wondering would anyone recommend a soil thermometer or will I just buy a standard one like this. http://www.grasstecgroup.com/product/standard-soil-thermometer/

Cow Porter

Cow Porter wrote: »

The advice in the article is good, just saying I'd rather not have cows starving. Ok they need an appetite to manage the grass but it's a balancing act, have to feed the cow too. Saw cows standing at a gap yesterday from 2pm. - Fair enough busy time etc. Passed another place and he was after bringing them in to buffer before milking. This is covered in the article saying cows still need to be fully fed in the day.

Should have kept my gob shut.... Cows in later than 'they should be' today.... Unforeseen circumstances lol

trixi2011

one benefit of living in a country dominated by high input dairy farming is the meal companies offer a service of doing herbage test on grass so farmers can adjust their tmr when grass is included. so this week we got our puzzled sales man out (usually clients aren't grazing till may/june) and took samples from 10 paddocks ranging from 500-2000 cutting samples to the dirt so not just leaf. The results were quite surprising
Cp = 20-24
Dm= 20-25
Me=11.9-12.7
the highest cover sample had a me of 11.7 dry matter of 25 and a cp of 24 I would of assumed it would of tested a lot poorer than this

just do it

Deleted User wrote: »

Just wondering would anyone recommend a soil thermometer or will I just buy a standard one like this. http://www.grasstecgroup.com/product/standard-soil-thermometer/

Thinking along the same lines, its a good thing to have alright.

frazzledhome

just do it wrote: »

Thinking along the same lines, its a good thing to have alright.

I use a regular meat one

td5man

frazzledhome wrote: »

I use a regular meat one

Same here, it needs to be long enough to go 3-4 inches into the ground.

frazzledhome

td5man wrote: »

Same here, it needs to be long enough to go 3-4 inches into the ground.

Exactly one you stick up a turkeys hole

Muckit

just do it wrote: »

I've ran a few marathons but thankfully have never had to go in-calf .

That's not what I heard. You were supposed to have calved after crossing the finish line!!

darragh_haven

frazzledhome wrote: »

Exactly one you stick up a turkeys hole

Would it have to be a turkeys hole! Would any out foul be acceptable

frazzledhome

darragh_haven wrote: »

Would it have to be a turkeys hole! Would any out foul be acceptable

I think you may mean fowl, but it was funny all the same :)

Greengrass1

How much area have ye all grazex . 16% here this morning.
I'll be around 32% by 1st march

Milked out

Greengrass1 wrote: »

How much area have ye all grazex . 16% here this morning.
I'll be around 32% by 1st march

Only at 9% here yet, rain yday has stopped us for a few days will go back out to lighter covers when it dries up.

Greengrass1

Milked out wrote: »

Only at 9% here yet, rain yday has stopped us for a few days will go back out to lighter covers when it dries up.

Grazed a wet paddock last two days.
It's destryed now. Possibly looks better than what it is. Happenes it every yr.
Will have to get it drained again

Milked out

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Grazed a wet paddock last two days.
It's destryed now. Possibly looks better than what it is. Happenes it every yr.
Will have to get it drained again

I was trying to get thru some of the wet ground b4 the rain came as well, just about managed it on for 4 hrs and off again. More marking the ground than poaching so to speak I hope anyway. Was annoyed when they broke out the other day as there is no going back in they.d only walk around and do more damage b4 settling

freedominacup

Greengrass1 wrote: »

How much area have ye all grazex . 16% here this morning.
I'll be around 32% by 1st march

20% here as of today. Aiming for 30% by 1st of March. Allocations getting bigger from tomorrow. Should be fully at grass by 1st. Actually think it might need to be sooner.

Greengrass1

freedominacup wrote: »

20% here as of today. Aiming for 30% by 1st of March. Allocations getting bigger from tomorrow. Should be fully at grass by 1st. Actually think it might need to be sooner.

Your covering fair area by only being out by day free.
I'm wondering will silage have to go back in here for march high demand then and those old leys and that reseed might grow feck all till grazed

freedominacup

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Your covering fair area by only being out by day free.
I'm wondering will silage have to go back in here for march high demand then and those old leys and that reseed might grow feck all till grazed

Grazed a lot of reseeds with light covers. Back into heavier ones over the past week. Fert going on Monday. You better be right about the 15-10-10 or you and me will be having words.

Greengrass1

freedominacup wrote: »

Grazed a lot of reseeds with light covers. Back into heavier ones over the past week. Fert going on Monday. You better be right about the 15-10-10 or you and me will be having words.

Jaysus I hope I am now ðŸ˜
Ah we got a great response last yr going out at start with a good bit of our allowance in p and k.
Hope this yr is just as good

Greengrass1

Lime going out on out farm today.
Will be 50 maiden heifers on it thus yr with spring ones and autumn ones.
Still 200 bales if silage over there untouched.
Hope I get as much off it this yr as I did last yr

stretch film

15% grazed as of today. rain thurs night had an effect on ground conditions so headed for an dry but exposed spot last night . was unhappy that they got a wetting with the last of the showers followed with a stiff breeze and dropping temps. must have been like stepping out of the bath and into the fridge for the night:(

Brown Podzol

15%. 2 cows to ha calved and should be over 3.5 at March 1. 3.5 kg 14% meal and maize silage as buffer.

Greengrass1

Giving cows silage before evening milking then allocating av 6-7kgs grass.
There's a bit of want for silage in them mostly autumn calved.
Clean out a bit better some days.
That's last nights allocation

Greengrass1

One of last yrs reseeds. Grazed a week today.
I need a farm of this stuff. Was grazing it every ten days last yr

larrymiller

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Lime going out on out farm today.
Will be 50 maiden heifers on it thus yr with spring ones and autumn ones.
Still 200 bales if silage over there untouched.
Hope I get as much off it this yr as I did last yr

Fella I know has 600 bales of extra silage. Couldn't believe it.

trixi2011

Greengrass1 wrote: »

One of last yrs reseeds. Grazed a week today.
I need a farm of this stuff. Was grazing it every ten days last yr

Greened up nice already it will be flying it when you get the slurry on. Trying to get a few reseeds grazed at the moment soft enough had to pull out of them after the rain yesterday

Greengrass1

larrymiller wrote: »

Fella I know has 600 bales of extra silage. Couldn't believe it.

Money in the bank. Over 100 still at home here.
Had too many yrs here with no silage now. Never want to see it again

Greengrass1

trixi2011 wrote: »

Greened up nice already it will be flying it when you get the slurry on. Trying to get a few reseeds grazed at the moment soft enough had to pull out of them after the rain yesterday

Grazing hybrid here ATM great stuff to get cows to graze low
Going into reseed we did in September then

whelan2

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Money in the bank. Over 100 still at home here.
Had too many yrs here with no silage now. Never want to see it again

its only the middle of February , they could be needed yet

trixi2011

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Grazing hybrid here ATM great stuff to get cows to graze low
Going into reseed we did in September then

Hopefully get to Finnish off ours latter in the week, promised a lot of rain here tomorrow hopefully it doesn't come

Greengrass1

whelan2 wrote: »

its only the middle of February , they could be needed yet

Oh I know. At least I have it and not going to have to compensate with meal

just do it

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Giving cows silage before evening milking then allocating av 6-7kgs grass.
There's a bit of want for silage in them mostly autumn calved.
Clean out a bit better some days.
That's last nights allocation

GG. Looks like not great clean out and a fair amount of trampled grass? Can be hard to tell from photos.

I've been grazing heavy covers and getting on ok. Then the paddock with Sunday's rain and got terrible clean out. Unfortunately though they are 3 day paddocks and I'm not in a position to graze for 3-4hr periods. Would get much better clean out that way with smaller paddocks.

Greengrass1

just do it wrote: »

GG. Looks like not great clean out and a fair amount of trampled grass? Can be hard to tell from photos.

I've been grazing heavy covers and getting on ok. Then the paddock with Sunday's rain and got terrible clean out. Unfortunately though they are 3 day paddocks and I'm not in a position to graze for 3-4hr periods. Would get much better clean out that way with smaller paddocks.

That's the trouble with giving silage even worse in the autumn.
I gave them smaller area today and they clipped that right down

just do it

Greengrass1 wrote: »

That's the trouble with giving silage even worse in the autumn.
I gave them smaller area today and they clipped that right down

Yeah I'd like to give much smaller allocations but Roman wasn't built in a day. Trying to get reseeds grazed as they've heavy covers and a few wet days here will have all the stock back in till God only knows.

Deepsouthwest

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Giving cows silage before evening milking then allocating av 6-7kgs grass.
There's a bit of want for silage in them mostly autumn calved.
Clean out a bit better some days.
That's last nights allocation

I'd be more than happy with that.

Milked out

Chanced the cows out here on the drier side of farm today in a paddock with a low enough cover after being in fir the last two days. Thought they were settling away when I went to close the gap when low and behold the neighbours dogs decide to come over and introduce themselves and 100 cows proceed to do a couple of laps of the field, cheap method of feckin ploughing anyway....

simx

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Money in the bank. Over 100 still at home here.
Had too many yrs here with no silage now. Never want to see it again

+1, have two handy pits here not opened yet, uncle buys and sells straw etc. he reckons if spring goes anyway natural pit silage will be got very right, hope to buy straw in May when cutting silage and put a lot on top of pit, hoping to gt for €6/€7/bale, can be got at minute for €8, offered 8x4x4 barley straw for €16 yesterday, nowhere to put it though atm

Timmaay

22% grazed, cows out by day, nothing else, but still a lot going through the parlour with a fair few April/may calvers not dry. I've been lazy enough this year about other figures like grass covers/% allocations etc, but staying within a week each side of the 1/3 area for March 1st and 2/3s paddy's day are very important. Pushing it in terms of amount of light poaching I'll admit, but that's something that doesn't hugely worry me, I always notice a very good recovery by the 2nd round in terms of growth.

Milked out

Just on the area grazed is it as a percentage of the milking block or is it whole farm? We will close 30% for 2 cut silage after it's grazed I assume for the targets lads would include this?

freedominacup

Milked out wrote: »

Just on the area grazed is it as a percentage of the milking block or is it whole farm? We will close 30% for 2 cut silage after it's grazed I assume for the targets lads would include this?

Whole farm.

Greengrass1

freedominacup wrote: »

Whole farm.

I've 16% grazed on whole farm. 22% in milking platform
I was always using milking platform.
Heifers might be going to grass Monday week

just do it

Timmaay wrote: »

Pushing it in terms of amount of light poaching I'll admit, but that's something that doesn't hugely worry me, I always notice a very good recovery by the 2nd round in terms of growth.

it's a balancing act alright. I'm coming to the conclusion the good ground recovers quickly from light poaching. On the peat ground however you can't afford any poaching of the top layer. Much slower recovery and subsequently more prone to poaching.

freedominacup

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I've 16% grazed on whole farm. 22% in milking platform
I was always using milking platform.
Heifers might be going to grass Monday week

With outfarms esp ground destined for silage I'd say the 30% is s bit less critical. You need the 30% on grazing platform to ensure adequate time for covers to build for the start of the next rotation in early April. Having the 30% grazed on outfarms helps though in a late spring. You have the covers t o allow you to keep the pressure off main grazing block if magic day is late.

Over the past few years I have become less hung up on closing dates for silage and am inclined to close ground as surpluses appear. I closed some paddocks for first cut last year as I was driving down the farm roadway with the mower on to knock the first cut.

I'll blanket spread the whole place first week of April with a bag and a half of ASN. Any ground deemed closed for silage will have gotten slurry and this ground and any other paddocks closed will be topped up depending on the weather since early April and the long term forecast around the 20th of the month. Probably around a bag of urea.

whelan2

what are grazing conditions like now?

trixi2011

whelan2 wrote: »

what are grazing conditions like now?

Not great over with us pretty sticky getting away with on off grazing but any more rain and we will be housed at night at least. Will try and keep some bit of grass in the diet as our silage in terrible

Milked out

whelan2 wrote: »

what are grazing conditions like now?

Clean out is excellent. ........ at the feed barrier:(

whelan2

Milked out wrote: »

Clean out is excellent. ........ at the feed barrier:(

same here, was nice to have them out for a few days , wonder when will they get out again