Grass Watch: A very wet summer brings complications

Our Grass Watch columnists paint a very wet picture of the UK this month, with reports of heavy rain and high grass growth.

The weather has continued to present silaging issues for our Scottish contributor Alice Muir, while over in Northern Ireland, Sam Chesney bought store lambs to graze the reseeds.

The wet midsummer will mean some of our contributors need to change their rounds over the next few weeks to allow cover to build for the coming months.

Alice Muir, Buccleuch Estates, Scotland

  • Land Langholm Farms: 7,085ha, mainly heather hill with 400ha of permanent grassland
  • Stock 1,560 Blackface Ewes, 1,100 Scottish Country Cheviot ewes, 900 Greyface/Aberfield ewes and 50 Galloway Cows
  • Altitude 80-404m
Cows or ewes per hectare Average 8.8/ha
Growth rate (kg dm/ha) 50/day
Average farm cover (kg/dm/ha) 1,800
Land type Peat/clay
Average rainfall (mm/month) 102mm
Figures correct to 17 August 

We have had a lot more rain this month again. Silage has been difficult to achieve but we have managed to get most of it baled now.

Alice Muir

Our forage crops are still not in the ground and time is running out, so fingers crossed we get a dry spell and allow them to be sown before the end of the month

See more: Grass Watch – July 2017

The new grass seeds are coming through but have been flooded twice since sowing, so we will just need to see how they have reacted to that as they develop.

Grass growth has been reasonable at 50.9kg DM/ha/day on most fields, but our rotational has been slower to come back again after having had a heavy rainfall and being poached slightly.

Sheep-wise, we are on to weighing lambs weekly now that they have been weaned and numbers on farm are steadily decreasing.

We are in the process of shedding the lambs into weight groups so we can push the heavier lambs onto the red clover ley and allow the lighter lambs to grow some more frame.

Our intention is to rotationally graze the clover to hopefully make the best use of the area we have, and allow our light and medium lambs some more space and time to grow.

Richard Fryer, Northwich, Cheshire

  • Land: 127ha
  • Stock: 230 Friesian cows plus 120 youngstock
  • Altitude: 40m
  • Calving: Autumn block calving, mainly grass-based
Stocking rate on grazing platform (cows/ha) 5.3
Growth rate on platform (kg dm/day) 77
Average farm cover (kg/dm/ha) 2,362
Yield (litres/cow/day) 10
Fat % 4.5
Protein % 4
Milk solids (kg/cow) 0.88
Supplements fed (kg/cow/day) 1
Average rainfall (mm/day) 23mm in the week ending 12/08/17
Land type  Medium
Figures correct to 17 August

“Spring starts in August” a grazing consultant drummed into our discussion group, so we have been making sure all paddocks are grazed out even tighter than usual to ensure excellent quality grass right into the autumn. 

This is made easier at this time of year by having such a large group of far-off dry cows and in-calf heifers, as well as having a good mains electric fence around all of the paddocks. This mob is only allocated 9kgDM per head each day to make sure they don’t get fat. 

Recent rainfall has meant the farm cover is a little higher than I would like for this time of year so we may end up bailing some more surplus grass. We always use this surplus growth as an opportunity to take out some paddocks for re-seeding.  

Our demand falls rapidly at this time of year as more and more animals move onto the standing hay for calving, beginning the 1st of September. We aim to calve over 80% of the herd outside so a dry month is always welcome here.

Twitter: @rjfryer76 

Mike Miller, Blandford, Dorset

  • Land: 106ha
  • Stock: 420 NZ Suffolk-cross Mules and 100 NZ Romney ewes
  • Altitude: 100m
Cows or ewes per hectare 1.1LU
Growth rate (kg dm/ha) 63
Average farm cover (kg/dm/ha) 2,320
Land type Heavy clay
Rainfall (mm month to date) 115
Figures correct to 17 August 

Plentiful rain throughout the month has seen grass supply continue to outstrip demand – a challenge on its own in a month which normally sees the reverse.

With grass quantity not being an issue for us this year, quality is something being looked at in sharper focus. 

With some animal performance targets falling short, detailed soil and tissue analysis have been taken throughout the year.

This farm’s issues seem to stem from high molybdenum levels – a result of the clay soils waterlogging over winter. Interestingly, plantain and clover have displayed a vastly different mineral and trace element profile to grass.

More work is needed so we can start putting a system in place to improve the situation for the future.

Sam Chesney, Kircubbin, County Down

  • Stock 150 Limousin sucklers
  • Altitude 30m
Stocking rate on grazing platform (LW kg/ha) 3,575kg liveweight/ha
Growth rate (kg DM/ha) 90
Rainfall (mm) 33.6
Land type Medium/heavy
Figures correct to 16 August 

It’s raining cats and dogs – that’s what my weather station is saying. A very changeable month so far with sharp heavy showers – 33.6mm here in the east, but many farmers have housed stock to my west. It’s like an early start to winter.

We have plenty of grass and are carrying 3,575kg live weight /ha. In fact, we have bought 300 lambs to finish and graze out the reseed.

Demand at present is 82.5kg and we have 14 days ahead and still an average growth of 90kg/ha.

Dung has all been spread and we will be planting turnips in the next few weeks for January grazing.

The cattle are doing well and, so far, no creep has been introduced due to the quality of the grass.

Finishing cattle will probably be housed in the next three weeks aiming for a 90-day finish.

Robert Craig, Penrith, Cumbria

  • Land Total 210ha
  • Stock 430 New Zealand/Kiwi-cross cows
  • Altitude Ranges from 160-210m
  • Calving Spring calving
Stocking rate on grazing platform (cows/ha) 3.68
Growth rate on platform (kg/dm/day) 88 (14 Aug)
Average farm cover (kg/dm/ha) 2,366 (14 Aug)
Yield (litres/cow/day) 20
Fat % 4.4
Protein % 3.7
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.65
Supplements fed (kg/cow/day) 3
Average rainfall (mm/day) 71mm on 18 Aug
Land type  Free-draining sandy loam
Figures correct to 19 August 

Grass growth is holding steady at similar levels to July and comfortably ahead of demand, allowing covers to build and some late silage to be taken from the milking platform in the past couple of weeks.

Robert Craig

Following a very wet July, August rainfall has been higher than required meaning ground conditions are soft, although manageable, and dry-matter intakes challenged.

Grass quality looks to be excellent, but wet days combined with low DM grass mean milk volume is falling – although solids are still at about what’s expected at this point of the lactation.

A third cut of silage will be taken from some of the support land towards the end of the month, allowing covers to build again for young stock grazing through the autumn.

A wet mid-summer period usually means lower growth through September, so no further silage will be taken from the milking platform and, as days shorten, round lengths will need to increase soon to allow cover to build early in the month taking sufficient into late season to allow grazing to continue for as long as possible.

Ben Richards, Helston, Cornwall

  • Land 146ha
  • Stock 280 Jersey-cross Friesians
  • Altitude 110m above sea level
  • Calving Spring-calving
Stocking rate on grazing platform (cows per ha) 209
Growth rate on platform (kg/day DM) 70
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM) 2,603
Yield (litres a cow a day) 12
Protein (%) 4.6
Fat (%) 5.5
Milk solids (kg a cow) 1.21
Supplements fed (kg a cow a day) 0
Rainfall (mm month to date) 95
Land type Free-draining sandy loam 
Figures correct to 17 August 

Some summer. We have had rain pretty much every day for the past month.

Ben Richards

The drop in pasture DM and the washing of the cows has knocked the milk back to September levels.

I have some dry red clover silage in the clamp, which would pick up the milk if fed, but as soon as the clamp is opened it will stop raining, and I have good covers on farm, so at the moment I will take the hit on production and hope the sun comes out again very soon.

The herd has been followed with 2t/acre of well-rotted dung (all well washed in). The next round we will follow with the einbock to scratch out the grazing pats and shift any dung.

Only a third of the farm has seen the mower this year and I find the einbocking to be very worthwhile. The slitter will follow when soil conditions are right.

I have ordered 20t of urea/sulphur to enable me to hit the whole farm twice this autumn. I plan to milk the empties/culls to the end of the season, so will need the urea to do this and hit target closing cover.

Gareth Davies, independent grassland expert

Rain’s knock-on effects put onus on grazing planning

It has been a strange month in many parts of the country with some farmers recording their highest grass growth figures of the year. This has, in the main, been a result of the wet and warm conditions that have prevailed.

This all sounds as though it should mean everything is fine and dandy on the western front. However, this weather has caused a few issues.

A lot of beef and sheep farms, especially hill farms who only take one cut of silage in mid to late July, are still waiting to cut some of their crops.

This then has a knock-on effect as they rely on these fields to finish their lambs, so although there is more grass than usual, the stocking rate on the grazeable land is higher than usual, which means technically farms are short of grass they can graze.

For farmers who have done their silage the weather has been great news, because August is the planning month, where you are looking to build covers across the farm to allow you to plan your grazing through September, October and November. How you graze through this period dictates how you are going to graze in the spring.

If you don’t plan your autumn and spring grazing now, it will be very difficult to use grazing to reduce your winter costs.

You are looking to graze as late as possible in the autumn and as early as possible in the spring. You will not achieve this without putting a plan in place.