Alex McCarthy: Stretching out the grazing season as far as we can

At the moment, we have a stocking rate of 1.92 livestock units per hectare. Ground conditions are good on the farm, and we are still grazing day and night. 

Last week, we were hoping to get one more week out full-time, but it looks like we are getting a second. Next week, we will start bringing the cows in at night. They will be fed on silage at night, which stretches the grass by day grazing until late November. We are trying to keep some grazed grass in the diet over the next few weeks as it is still a cheap, good-quality feed.

We hope to carry a lighter average farm cover across the winter as we know the farm grows well over this period of time. We have good clover content on paddocks and want to ensure these do not get shaded by heavier covers. 

We have closed off the paddocks we plan to graze first in the spring, selecting ones with good access. We are following the cows grazing with the spreading of soiled water.

We have sold some cull cows. However, we will milk the remaining cull cows until they are dry and fatten them across the winter. 

This year, we will also continue with selective dry cow therapy on low somatic cell count cows. From the current milk recording, there are 88 cows identified as being eligible for teat sealer only. We will do another milk recording in early November and decide who else will get added to the list.

We plan to body condition score the cows in the next week, and any thin cows will get preferential treatment over the dry period. We will continue to monitor the condition of all the cows and separate them accordingly over the dry period. 

We also will weigh our replacement heifer calves to see if they are on target. This will allow us to focus on each heifer individually rather than as a group average.

Heifers should be at 40% of their mature weight at housing. If we find that any of our heifers are behind target, we still have plenty of time to supplement them to achieve better ADG and get them back on target. There is a strong association between first calving live weight and total milk solids yield during the first three lactations.

We have completed an up-to-date fodder budget and have a surplus on the farm. We have also tested our silage stocks in the yard and are planning on feeding based on quality results. 

We will hope to have 72 DMD silage for the milking cows. We will regularly update our fodder budget as we feed silage to keep track of the amount we have left.

Hopefully, the weather continues to stay settled, and the cows can stay grazing by day for the month of November after a challenging year from the get-go.

• 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.