The Grass Measuring Thread

GrasstoMilk

https://support.pasturebase.teagasc.ie/support/solutions/folders/19000150215

That time of year creeping up again. Anyone done a January cover yet?
Lots of very green covers here that haven't stopped growing all winter. I'll be disappointed if AFC is under 1000

charolais0153

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

https://support.pasturebase.teagasc.ie/support/solutions/folders/19000150215

That time of year creeping up again. Anyone done a January cover yet?
Lots of very green covers here that haven't stopped growing all winter. I'll be disappointed if AFC is under 1000

Mine says its 434afc..

degetme

Seems faster to respond than the old pasturebase. More user friendly. Not as slow

charolais0153

degetme wrote: »

Seems faster to respond than the old pasturebase. More user friendly. Not as slow

Ya its easier to navigate and looks a lot better. Its a small bit awkward on mobiles still though but you can get round that

Freejin

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

https://support.pasturebase.teagasc.ie/support/solutions/folders/19000150215

That time of year creeping up again. Anyone done a January cover yet?
Lots of very green covers here that haven't stopped growing all winter. I'll be disappointed if AFC is under 1000

How does one go about signing up to Pasture Base?

GrasstoMilk

Freejin wrote: »

How does one go about signing up to Pasture Base?

When I signed up I had to ring the admin.presume it's still the same

GrasstoMilk

charolais0153 wrote: »

Mine says its 434afc..

When did you last do a cover?

charolais0153

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

When did you last do a cover?

5th of Jan.....I'm only using a ruler at this stage but I feel it should be about 700 anyways

GrasstoMilk

charolais0153 wrote: »

5th of Jan.....I'm only using a ruler at this stage but I feel it should be about 700 anyways

Don't know how a ruler could be used. Wgat was closing cover?

charolais0153

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Don't know how a ruler could be used. Wgat was closing cover?

To get height of grass.for every centimetre above 4 you add 250kg/DM.ha roughly
168kg farm cover on 20th November.
The whole year it never went above 800 ????

Ya I was probably way out with that 700 cover there. 434 is a long way of thousand tho like

GrasstoMilk

charolais0153 wrote: »

To get height of grass.for every centimetre above 4 you add 250kg/DM.ha roughly
168kg farm cover on 20th November.
The whole year it never went above 800 ????

Ya I was probably way out with that 700 cover there. 434 is a long way of thousand tho like

I'd say go buy a clippers and quadrant, if you closed at 168 on November you must have had no paddock with any grass on it?
What's your sr?

whelan2

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

I'd say go buy a clippers and quadrant, if you closed at 168 on November you must have had no paddock with any grass on it?
What's your sr?

Didn't someone have a welly with the covers marked on it?

charolais0153

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

I'd say go buy a clippers and quadrant, if you closed at 168 on November you must have had no paddock with any grass on it?
What's your sr?

No big cover really but slurry was only after being applied on 20%of farm.
Sr would always be kind of different. It would be 3,5 at march fifteenth increasing from Feb 20th as ewes lamb(assuming ewe eats 2kg DM and lamb eats .1). It reaches a peak at end of may when cows are out and lambs are strong and silage ground out as well at about 5lu.
Might make a quadrant alright

RobinBanks

I ordered a plate meter today. Always had interest in grass management. I don't have paddocks setup up properly though. I use 2 reels and keep moving them forward with fence behind them to prevent going back.

I will setup paddocks this year though. Looking forward to trying out the plate meter.

freedominacup

whelan2 wrote: »

Didn't someone have a welly with the covers marked on it?

He's one of the leading lights on the agrinet grass measuring thing now. I haven't seen the welly for quite a while

Mf310

RobinBanks wrote:

I ordered a plate meter today. Always had interest in grass management. I don't have paddocks setup up properly though. I use 2 reels and keep moving them forward with fence behind them to prevent going back.

Where did you order yours?

charolais0153

Got the loan of the platemeter from teagasc today...it will be interesting to see how far I was out . got it a yer ago aswel

whelan2

charolais0153 wrote: »

Got the loan of the platemeter from teagasc today...it will be interesting to see how far I was out . got it a yer ago aswel

Is there farmers near to you grass measuring? Might be an idea to tag along with them for a few walks and see what they say is on the fields, thats how I learnt and you get a good chat in too

charolais0153

whelan2 wrote: »

Is there farmers near to you grass measuring? Might be an idea to tag along with them for a few walks and see what they say is on the fields, thats how I learnt and you get a good chat in too

None that have more knowledge than me!!!!

whelan2

charolais0153 wrote: »

None that have more knowledge than me!!!!

Right so. Every day is a learning day here.

Sam Kade

whelan2 wrote: »

Is there farmers near to you grass measuring? Might be an idea to tag along with them for a few walks and see what they say is on the fields, thats how I learnt and you get a good chat in too

Did it take you long to learn and can you eyeball a cover now?

whelan2

Sam Kade wrote: »

Did it take you long to learn and can you eyeball a cover now?

Went on about 8/10 walks-there was a group of 3 of us. 1 lad had been measuring years. I have a lad does most of my walks for me now but will go with him an odd time as he has the quadrant etc and I will do a walk myself if he gets delayed in coming to do one. 1 of the lads that I used to walk with had a great way , he would first of all say is the cover over 1000, then say is it over 500 and narrow it down to what it is, great for starting off .Really its just putting a proper figure on what we have been looking at for years, like a skinned field has 50/100 cover and one that should possibly be taken out for bales has over 2000 and all the rest are in between Just getting the figure reasonably right is the hard part to get right

GrasstoMilk

Made a start at the '17 season today. Travelled our wettest field. Other years you'd bog the tractor. Made one mark in a 5ft piece today

stretch film

whelan2 wrote: »

Went on about 8/10 walks-there was a group of 3 of us. 1 lad had been measuring years. I have a lad does most of my walks for me now but will go with him an odd time as he has the quadrant etc and I will do a walk myself if he gets delayed in coming to do one. 1 of the lads that I used to walk with had a great way , he would first of all say is the cover over 1000, then say is it over 500 and narrow it down to what it is, great for starting off .Really its just putting a proper figure on what we have been looking at for years, like a skinned field has 50/100 cover and one that should possibly be taken out for bales has over 2000 and all the rest are in between Just getting the figure reasonably right is the hard part to get right

Teagasc had a really simple sheet that worked off bands e.g. 0-500, 500-1000 etc.
There was a description to accompany each band . Short grass , light graze etc.

Very simple way of starting off and as you say you start questioning yourself within the band's eventually and getting quiet accurate.

If someone has one they might put it up and used along with pasturebase measuring would be a doddle .

Timmaay

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Made a start at the '17 season today. Travelled our wettest field. Other years you'd bog the tractor. Made one mark in a 5ft piece today

Too much grass here to bother with fertilizer yet ha.

charolais0153

See the growth in Connacht......eighteen kg/DM/ha . that was us....probably from underestimating the previous cover. AFC at 520now

GrasstoMilk

Timmaay wrote: »

Too much grass here to bother with fertilizer yet ha.

Your okay now with the low sr. need that grass to recover quick as soon as it's grazed

charolais0153

When your recording the fertiliser application and it says kg/ac is that amount of stuff let's say one bag is 50kg or do you put kg of n in. I presume its the former

RobinBanks

anyone here with an F200 plate meter?Im trying to find out what equation I would use for calibrating the device.

GrasstoMilk

AFC 1130 at 16% DM
Gr 9 over winter
Closed at 400 on nov1st
Highest cover 2250
Lowest is 500
probably should have used 18% in hindsight, hearing grass samples coming in at 20%Dm

Will probably go to grass next Monday. Few cows starting to spring
50% will be calved in 10-12 days

Mooooo

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

AFC 1130 at 16% DM
Gr 9 over winter
Closed at 400 on nov1st
Highest cover 2250
Lowest is 500
probably should have used 18% in hindsight, hearing grass samples coming in at 20%Dm

Will probably go to grass next Monday. Few cows starting to spring
50% will be calved in 10-12 days

What would the cover of 2250 been at at closing. As in winter would heavier covers grow more or less than lighter covers iykwim?

GrasstoMilk

Mooooo wrote: »

What would the cover of 2250 been at at closing. As in winter would heavier covers grow more or less than lighter covers iykwim?

It was 500 at closing iirc.
It'll be probably be end of Feb before I've the mouths to graze it properly
That's an exceptional variety and bred to grow over winter. Typical winter growth here would be 5-6 but we've had an exceptional winter

Buford T. Justice XIX

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1332643683453647&id=1161444260573591

A bit above about N use in spring grazing.

f140

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1332643683453647&id=1161444260573591

A bit above about N use in spring grazing.

any chance of a summary, I was too lazy to read it all

charolais0153

f140 wrote: »

any chance of a summary, I was too lazy to read it all

Don't put n on heavy covers,wait till they're grazed before applying n. Organic matter is extremely important for the soil

GrasstoMilk

charolais0153 wrote: »

Don't put n on heavy covers,wait till they're grazed before applying n. Organic matter is extremely important for the soil

Wouldn't agree re heavy covers. They need N more than any other cover. No energy left for regrowths once grazed. If the N is spread now and there grazed in 4-5 weeks time they are r day to grow once there grazed

charolais0153

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Wouldn't agree re heavy covers. They need N more than any other cover. No energy left for regrowths once grazed. If the N is spread now and there grazed in 4-5 weeks time they are r day to grow once there grazed

Im just summarising what the article said ....would n not be working now on the heavy covers making them even heavier and then there would be less n left for regrowths

FeelTheBern

Just clicked into this thread to post a question and see now might be bang on topic!

Have a paddock that closed off early in autumn to save for suckler cows and calves end Feb/start of March. Nice bit of grass on it now. Don't generally spread fertiliser here early in Spring but wondering should I spread urea on it now to have more grass on it in few weeks when grazing or graze it and then spread after in March?

Buford T. Justice XIX

For those interested in grass recording, there is a link in the following tweet for an explanation and some helpful notes on understanding the figures as well.

https://twitter.com/JohnMor320d/status/823621744233771008

freedominacup

FeelTheBern wrote: »

Just clicked into this thread to post a question and see now might be bang on topic!

Have a paddock that closed off early in autumn to save for suckler cows and calves end Feb/start of March. Nice bit of grass on it now. Don't generally spread fertiliser here early in Spring but wondering should I spread urea on it now to have more grass on it in few weeks when grazing or graze it and then spread after in March?

We covered the whole place last week with urea. I'd get a bit out. Not a general rule but you have to play what's in front of you. Last year we had nothing out before the end of Feb.

alps

FeelTheBern wrote: »

Just clicked into this thread to post a question and see now might be bang on topic!

Have a paddock that closed off early in autumn to save for suckler cows and calves end Feb/start of March. Nice bit of grass on it now. Don't generally spread fertiliser here early in Spring but wondering should I spread urea on it now to have more grass on it in few weeks when grazing or graze it and then spread after in March?

Lots of rain for thursday, so that would want to be on the ground Tuesday morning...window closing for the time being I reckon....

freedominacup

alps wrote: »

Lots of rain for thursday, so that would want to be on the ground Tuesday morning...window closing for the time being I reckon....

Didn't check the forecast before i posted. Alps is right about window closing.

Keepgrowing

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

darragh_haven

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

Gras sample from a recently receeded paddock?

Timmaay

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

Late lactation cows who have just after been turfed out to grass, should I feed them only this or keep up the bit of maize at night?

Mooooo

Timmaay wrote: »

Late lactation cows who have just after been turfed out to grass, should I feed them only this or keep up the bit of maize at night?

I would keep in the maize would compliment the grass well, help hold condition.

Mooooo

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

Wasn't that field spread with fert long before sample taken?

darragh_haven

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

Gras sample from a recently receeded paddock?

charolais0153

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

Lots would its just they're considerably more expensive;)

Signpost

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Grass result dry matter 21.7%, protein 21.5%, DMD 82%

Not too many feeds will compete with that

How did you get the figures? Grass sample to a lab or some home made operation?

GrasstoMilk

Signpost wrote: »

How did you get the figures? Grass sample to a lab or some home made operation?

Testing ours this afternoon with this new portable testing kit Glanbia have. I'll let you know what it comes back at