Grazing 2021

minerleague

I agree with easten on one thing, you can't foresee what conditions will be like next spring. Not much point having grass for early grazing if you get a wet winter. farming heavy ground here and last few wet years land gets wetter from now on so try to keep winter as short as possible by keeping them out now. Now have to say lightly stocked here with factory cattle finishing up. Cows and calves get round bale of hay outside from now on, helps slow wet grass plus trying to get them to graze out fields well.

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118067889#Comment_118067889

The reality in the west of the country on all average to reasonable land after another days rain and if the wether stays unsettled 30 of them cows would have 30 acres ploughed in a fortnight .In the east it would be a different story probably .In the south west here we would have at least 2 inches of rain every week with the last 5 weeks so the rain ie taking its toll at this stage ,same story every year dam lucky to get to the 1st of november and any day more is a bonus grazing for adult cattle

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068972#Comment_118068972

I find the last 6 years, roughly, that winter is Late Feb to mid march.

I've often had them out a few hours a day in January while mid march might be horrible.

Jb1989

Yep, I agree with Eastern too.

There's frost now on May day and hardly any in October November.

Im farming wet land too, but this year, more than ever I'll be takeing every day's grazeing now I get, and will aim for a may month turn out if so be it.

The people giveing out about calender farming regarding spreading slurry, contradict themselves, with their determination of calender grazeing.

At the end of the day eastern has a valid point for his farm and lots more like him.

memorystick

If land gets ploughed up now it has 5 months to recover. You have to graze off grass at this time of year.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069952#Comment_118069952

Land that gets damaged now can get a run of a chain harrow in spring when ground condition allow. Then a fast run with an empty land roller.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070170#Comment_118070170

If it gets tramped/ploughed now it’ll hold lots of water and take longer to dry in the spring

Dunedin

A small bit of damage is not an issue but too much will take a lot longer to recover next spring.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070189#Comment_118070189

The only real issue is where ground becomes liquidised in to slurry(around a feeding area) or very heavy ground. I have even seen with early spring grazing where ground gets damaged it will have recovered fairly fast. The actual trick with that ground is to not to be afraid regraze in the rotation and a quick light roll

Really heavy land may need to be treated slightly different but in general lads can be afraid of a little damage when there is no need to

Mooooo

All stock out full time still, using cows to get thru as much as I can but weather nearly beating me. Have the wettest ground grazed but the rain ain't coming in small bits and pieces either. In calf heifers will be housed by the wkend and calves the following week weather dependant. If the end of the week comes bad and cows are forced in I may use the remaining ground for calves. Have only 5 empty cows to offload and possibly a bull or two.

Just on the talk of grazing by calender etc, it is just about having enough grass in spring. If spring demand is low its not such an issue but if you are regularly grazing into December and can't get stock out till april/ May then the main reason is that the farm has been grazed too tight along with any damage taking longer to recover in terms of moisture.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070466#Comment_118070466

There is one main difference between beef and dairying, when cattle go out in spring grass must make up 100% of the diet. I have no problem housing for 7-14 days in May if it comes to that, but supplementation on grass during the spring is not feasible. Cows might only have 40% if there diet as grass during the spring

funkey_monkey

All still out here, but it is starting to poach in places because the heavy deluges of rain recently don't drain away as quickly at this time of year. Still plenty of grass ahead of them so might end up getting the cows checked for being in calf and then split them across a number of fields. Insufficient sheep numbers to handle what's on the ground. Some of our flatter ground waterlogs in the hollows very quickly - when walking on it, its like a sponge. Luckily we just have some young stock on it so they are not hard on it - although the wet grass at this time of year is making their dung very loose and they are starting to get dirty.

Unsure as to where to give them a dose now or hold off until they are housed. Incidentally I was looking for a dose for them - was thinking of a drench for this time of year as a pour-on would get washed off and then I seen Cydectin Triclamox which is advertised as rainproof - only issue is the withdrawal period is a hefty 143 days - however they came up with that number.

Timmaay

And it could be game over very quickly here lol, horrible day, 5hours left and still 16mm of rain due!! But fantastic back end so far, a month ago I didn't think I'd ever get through the wedge that was in front of the cows, but always large enough demand this time of the year, and AFC dropping fast enough now. I can't complain because I made no real effort to slow down the cows, only fed half a dozen bales until today. Cows staying in tonight, and if I get to the 15th Nov with some sort of on off grazing with the milkers that will be good enough.

funkey_monkey

Yip - awful day here too. Shifted cattle into a new paddock and am keeping eye on them like a hawk as there might be an increased risk of staggers in this weather when putting them into good fields of grass. Still got a pile of grass ahead of them so will try to get it grazed down.

Dozer1

Some rain today will house a good share Saturday

Bass Reeves

Still trundling along. Will probably start housing from the start of the second week in November. Stock are in 4 main bunches. Biggest is 24 stores grazing off slight heavy ground. A few land drains went into it about 6-7 years ago it took 3-4 years to properly dry out bit it is holding up well at present.

21 in a other bunch are being strip grazed through a heavy cover still good clean out. Another bunch of 12 are going similarly. There is 8 finishing cattle in a paddock with decent cover they are on 6 kgs/ day of barley/ maize/ hulls. There is some hitting 30 months the third week in November so will move them around then

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082012#Comment_118082012

Never saw anything other than cows getting staggers

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082526#Comment_118082526

Got some cows out with their calves - we'd have a history of it here. Lost a few when I was a lot younger before the vet diagnosed the problem.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082588#Comment_118082588

That's different, do you not give them Cal Mag. you're lucky if you don't just find them dead especially if there's older calves on them

funkey_monkey

They get FlowMag in water and Opti-Mag throughout the season. Touch wood we haven't lost one since we figured out the problem. Wet weather means they don't go to the trough often enough so the Opti-Mag is supplementary. Before going out of shed, they'd get their first Opti-Mag of the season to get it in and releasing into their system.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082672#Comment_118082672

Yea we used it in our sucklers too, it was never too bad, the magnesium pump was enough even in wet weather, we used to have to add iodine to the magnesium as well. the pump is a great job. We used to get a lot of chills in the calve until we put the iodine through the pump

funkey_monkey

The one we use contains se, i, zn, cu, co and mag. So hopefully well covered.

funkey_monkey

Was it the dispenser in a gallon jar in the water trough you used?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082841#Comment_118082841

No, a pump on the water pipe, it'd suck a certain amount of the flomag for every 100gals water that went through the pipe, the flomag intake was adjustable, you could turn it up in wet weather, but I never need ed to

https://www.dosatronusa.com/

MIKEKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082929#Comment_118082929

Used same system here never adjusted pump. Never a problem

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082929#Comment_118082929

Yes, have one of those too, but mostly using a compsey dispenser now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaYenQXmdYY

Mooooo

Heifers in, cows in today and tonight prob tomorrow as well, some amount of rain falling since 4 this morning. I think someone measuring nearby had it over 50mm so far and still at it.

funkey_monkey

Did you get them in dry or did they come in wet?

Mooooo

Wet, cows have to walk out to the parlour anyway and take so long to walk down they'd be wet any wet day. Have never had any problems in the shed really touch wood.

funkey_monkey

Great day here today. Sun shining and a bit of a breeze. Getting ready for another move tomorrow.