Grass Watch: Welcome rainfall gets grass growing again

After some much-needed rain, most of our Grass Watch columnists have been able to get silage in this month and start to catch up on grass deficits created by the previous dry spell.

Sward quality, with more stem and seed heads than desired, has been an issue for some as the dry weather encouraged flowering. And getting re-seeds going has been tricky for our Cumbrian columnist because of the preceding lack of rain and cold spring.

Grass growth is up though and the rain has seen growth rates back up to 85kg DM/ha for our Cheshire farmer.

See also: Read more from last year’s Grass Watch series

Ben Richards, Helston, Cornwall

• Land: 146ha
• Stock: 280 Jersey-cross Friesians
• Altitude: 110m above sea level
• Calving: Spring-calving

We’ve had a bit more rain this month: 60mm in week 1, 40mm in week 2, 60mm in week 3 and no rain but hot weather in week 4.

I’ve cut 22ha for silage at an average 4,850kg DM/ha and I currently have 6ha out of the rotation, which will either be silage or deferred grazing – rainfall will decide.

Only the milking herd remains on the grazing platform; all calves are now weaned and on my rented block or at the contract rearer.

I have spread some urea, but with demand now back to 49kg DM/ha, I should have options on fertiliser applications and don’t plan to put any more on. I’m quite happy for it to stay in the shed.

The cows were bred without veterinary assistance, all except six (out of 250) bulled in the first three weeks and were duly AI’d. My home-bred bulls will run with the herd for a month, followed by a Hereford and anything late will be sold fresh next year.

FARM FACTS

Stocking rate on grazing platform (cows a ha)	2.9
Growth rate on platform (kg/day DM)	64 (average 91)
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM)	2,286
Yield (litres a cow a day)	14
Protein (%)	4.1
Fat (%)	5.2
Milk solids (kg a cow)	1.5
Supplements fed (kg a cow a day)	0
Rainfall (mm)	160 (up to 19 June)
Land type	Free-draining sandy loam

Figures correct up to 19 June

Robert Craig, Penrith, Cumbria

• Land: Total 210ha
• Stock: 430 New Zealand/Kiwi-cross cows
• Altitude: Ranges from 160-210m above sea level
• Calving: Spring calving

Following decent rainfall early in the month, grass growth rates picked up to around 80kg DM/ha, although maintaining sward quality has been challenging as the dry May encouraged flowering.

Silaging has taken place twice so far and will continue every three weeks while we generate surplus grass through the summer or until growth rates fall back.

In an attempt to control grazing quality, both units have been using pre-mowing to reduce rejection and increase utilisation.

Per cow milk solids production looks to be holding up better than last year on both farms, although the age profile at Cairnhead is more favourable compared with 2016.

A slight casualty of the dry and cold late spring seems to be our spring re-seeds on some very steep ground, which is proving to be slow to get going. I’m not really sure how to improve the situation as any intervention will possibly destroy what little seed did germinate.   

 FARM FACTS

Stocking rate on grazing platform (cows/ha)	4.43
Growth rate on platform (kg/day DM)	53 (16 June)
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM)	2,251 (16 June)
Yield (litres a cow a day)	25
Fat %	4.5
Protein %	3.53
Milk solids (kg a cow)	2
Supplements fed (kg a cow a day)	3
Rainfall (mm)	82 (up to 19 June)
Land type	Free draining sandy loam

Figures correct up to 19 June

Richard Fryer, Northwich, Cheshire

• Land: 127ha
• Stock: 230 Friesian cows plus 120 youngstock
• Altitude: 40m
• Calving: Autumn block calving, mainly grass based

Grass is jumping out of the ground again. 

While quality is mostly still good, long daylight hours and being in the fourth grazing round mean some paddocks have more stem and seed heads than we would like. 

So far, nine hectares of surplus grass have been taken out of the grazing round and either baled or clamped with the second cut. 

This, along with some pre-mowing in the the second half of June, should keep quality grass in front of the cows well into the summer.

We have just closed a three hectare paddock to grow into a crop of standing hay and a further four hectares will be shut up in early July.  This seven hectares, along with some hay at the yard, allows us to calve over 80% of the cows and heifers outside in September and October.

@rjfryer76 

Stocking rate on grazing platform (cows/ha)	4.6
Growth rate on platform (kg/day DM)	85
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM)	2,522
Yield (litres a cow a day)	14
Fat %	4.6
Protein %	3.6
Milk solids (kg a cow)	1.1
Supplements fed (kg a cow a day)	1
Rainfall (mm)	30mm week ending 10 June
Land type	Medium

Figures correct up to 18 June

Sam Chesney, Kircubbin, County Down

• Stock: 150 Limousin sucklers
• Altitude: 30m above sea level

At last some rain. We’ve had 68mm to date (16 June) – that’s more than April and May put together and more than March’s total.

To that end, growth has been so slow I am in deficit for the past three weeks. I’ve only got 10 days of grass ahead of me and in a 21-day rotation really need 14/18 days for comfort, and I’ve got a deficit of -1,356kg DM/ha . 

It was desperate times, so I removed 40 cows with calves and 40 store heifers from the grazing block to the silage block to lighten demand and my grass wedge is back on target.

Second-cut red clover was made this week. It was two weeks late due to the welcome rain and bulked into 26 chopped bales/ha – probably a bit hard, but it was a snatch and grab operation at the time.

Cattle, although on a very tight grass supply have performed reasonably well, with 40 store heifers gaining in excess of 0.75kg/day.

Grass quality remains good with samples taken every two weeks and average results showing crude protein at 20.3 and 11.5 ME, which is still much better than concentrates.

I have had a big problem with docks though as they have deeper roots and were the only plants to grow well, so a lot of spraying needs doing shortly.

Finally my grass reseed that was sowed mid-May has appeared and thankfully washed its face in the rain this month. It’s still patchy, but hopefully it will do.

You can follow all our grass results on the Agrisearch website if you’re interested.

FARM FACTS

Growth rate (kg/ha DM)	72
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM)	2,084
Rainfall (mm)	68 (up to 16 June)
Land type	Medium/heavy

Figures correct up to 15 June

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

We have now been through all our lambs for nematodirus and given clostridial vaccines and a vitamin B12 injection. We are about to start the dosing programme again for nemotodirus, then we will be using FEC pack results over summer.

Grass has grown well and, although the weather has been wet, we are managing to rotate the sheep cleanly. The grass covers are getting ahead of the ewes now and we have had to add more sheep to our rotations to get the most out of it.

Grass covers this week have been averaging 2,135kg DM/ha, which is significantly better than where we were sitting a month ago (1,650kg).

We haven’t cut silage yet, but we will need to add more ewes to the rotation in order to keep on top of the grass growth if it continues post-silage.

Looking back, applying fertiliser to the winter grazed fields probably wasn’t necessary but I was glad of the benefit post-turnout.

We have ploughed fields ready to sow out in our herbal leys experiment; these should be sown out by the end of the month and we will hopefully be able to graze them post-weaning.

I am looking forward to seeing how they perform on this land and they will be compared to a high performance grass mix and a wet ground mixture, which will give us an indicator as to future grass mixture choice under rotational grazing to suit this heavy wet farm.

FARM FACTS

Cows or ewes a hectare	8.8/ha
Growth rate (kg/ha DM)	60
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM)	2,135
Land type	Peat/clay
Rainfall (mm)	63 (up to 13 June)

Figures correct up to 13 June

Mike Miller, Blandford, Dorset

• Land: 106ha
• Stock: 420 NZ Suffolk-cross Mules and 100 NZ Romney ewes
• Altitude: 100m above sea level

Grass growth rates exploded as expected through the back end of May and into June, with enough weather windows to bale excess grass into silage.

Now the hot dry weather has settled in, growth has slowed, but it has allowed for great hay-making conditions with 150 round bales made for the suckler cows winter feed.

Maincrop swedes have grown really well and are due a foliar feed, while the spring reseed has been grazed with a mob of ewes and lambs to encourage tillering, leaving a residual of 1,200kg DM/ha. Only a few annual weeds are showing so hopefully any herbicides won’t be necessary.

Attention will soon be turning to weaning lambs with optimum covers and “clean” grazing being targeted to maintain daily liveweight gains. 

FARM FACTS

Cows or ewes per hectare	1.1 livestock unit/ha
Growth rate (kg/ha DM)	65kg DM/ha
Average farm cover (kg/ha DM)	2,100
Land type	Heavy clay
Rainfall (mm)	34 (up to 20 June)

Figures correct up to 20 June