The And Rotation Of Mccarthy: Grazing Season The Covers At Targeting Alex End

Wed, 25 Sep, 2024 - 10:42

Alex McCarthy

The cows are delivering 1.87kg of milk solids per day on 5kg of meal. Current production is 22.6L/cow/day, at 4.28% butterfat and 3.77% protein.

We have increased the meal recently to help build an autumn cover of grass. SCC is currently 92, which is very satisfactory. We have competed our scan and have 13% empty overall after 11 weeks of breeding.

Last week, our average farm cover was 576kg DM/ha with a cover per cow of 231kg. Our pre-grazing yields were 1,300kg DM/ha, with cows doing a very good job on graze-outs.

Our current demand is 37, while growth is 50, so this is giving us a chance to build up some grass cover and take some pressure off.

Growth is still restricted from the dry and cold weather. The rain last Sunday has helped a bit. Our stocking rate is 2.49 currently. Our target would be to have a cover per cow of 400 by October 1, a farm cover of 1,000kg DM/ha and a rotation length of 40 days.

We have completed a winter fodder budget. We have enough silage for five and a half months for all stock based on our current silage reserve, with a third cut to be completed later in the month. We will hope to get slurry or Muriate of Potash (MOP) back out on the ground we cut to help the soil K levels.

We planned to keep spreading 20 units of fertiliser up to the closing date on September 15. We have topped a couple of paddocks in recent days to correct grass quality, as they didn’t come clean after being topped in July. We will also spread lime on the ground that was reseeded by min till earlier this year. The plan is to spread 20 tonnes of lime at least.

Our discussion group went on a trip to Cork in late August. It was a very enjoyable day out. We visited the Macroom Buffalo farm in the morning, where we got a tour of the farm, the history of how it all started and of course, to taste some cheese and buffalo burgers.

We had our lunch in the Castle Hotel Macroom, and in the afternoon, we visited the farm of Con Lehane, a heavy soils programme demo farmer. It was very interesting to hear about the challenges he faces on a heavier farm and how he has learned to overcome and adapt in order to spend as many days on the grass as possible. It was a very informative visit.

Alex McCarthy farms alongside his mother and father, Mary Ita and Michael, in Feenagh, Co Limerick, and is a Dairy Signpost Demonstration Farmer on the Teagasc Kerry Agribusiness Joint Programme.