Grass Growth Rates

Some bog land we have is growing well but the hilly land is roasted. These lads are not
too worried about it.

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grass getting tight here now, how much dairy ration could i feed in an effort to save grass ? 6kgs and ration the grass or go higher ? i,m not opening the pit as it looks like i,ll have little or none second cut unless i get a good couple of days rain
 
humungus said:
grass getting tight here now, how much dairy ration could i feed in an effort to save grass ? 6kgs and ration the grass or go higher ? i,m not opening the pit as it looks like i,ll have little or none second cut unless i get a good couple of days rain
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8kgs but if your grazing low covers with very little stem or aftergrass then you will have to give access to good straw or hay maybe.
Going in with silage Monday here, about to hit a complete wall.
 
Blackwater boy said:
8kgs but if your grazing low covers with very little stem or aftergrass then you will have to give access to good straw or hay maybe.
Going in with silage Monday here, about to hit a complete wall.
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grass is stemmy and scarce but will probably squeeze 10 days out of it, i remember being on padraig walshes farm years ago during a drought and he said the dm in the grass was huge and very little along with a good bit of ration would keep them going, his theory was the time to feed them was when the rain came and the dm dropped like a stone
 
Starting to tighten here as well,light mist falling but it’s hardly wetting the ground.
Not looking for rain yet anyway we’ll get plenty of it soon enough.
 
I'm not exactly looking for rain but it's making things awkward, no comfort, chasing grass all year. Put in 5kgs DM of silage last night for a few days to bring rotation back out to 22-23 days. Stocked at 3.3 on grazing block currently.
 
Wow, it changes so much in a small area. We are less than 35 miles from you @Seedsower. If the weather forecast was not for good weather in the coming days, I'd be starting to get worried. We have had 25mm of rain since this day last week (10mm of that in the last 36 hours) . Looking at my cows this morning, I remarked that they are puddling the ground a bit where they are walking, but it's not just wet enough for them to do any damage. Grass is shooting up. In the last 7 days, we have seen growth in excess of 100. We will gladly take 2 weeks of very warm weather now as we will have enough stocks of grass built up with all of the moisture that we got in the last week.
 
muckymanor said:
Wow, it changes so much in a small area. We are less than 35 miles from you @Seedsower. If the weather forecast was not for good weather in the coming days, I'd be starting to get worried. We have had 25mm of rain since this day last week (10mm of that in the last 36 hours) . Looking at my cows this morning, I remarked that they are puddling the ground a bit where they are walking, but it's not just wet enough for them to do any damage. Grass is shooting up. In the last 7 days, we have seen growth in excess of 100. We will gladly take 2 weeks of very warm weather now as we will have enough stocks of grass built up with all of the moisture that we got in the last week.
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no rain here for 2.5 weeks til yesterday.
bales being fed on 2 dairy farms locally.
they had too much and made bales a while back but bare ground is slow to grow now.
my brother in law is 6 miles away and has had no rain in over a month.
he is getting very thirsty.i reseeeded 35 acres for him in mid may and it has taken but needs a lot of rain to come on
 
Seedsower said:
no rain here for 2.5 weeks til yesterday.
bales being fed on 2 dairy farms locally.
they had too much and made bales a while back but bare ground is slow to grow now.
my brother in law is 6 miles away and has had no rain in over a month.
he is getting very thirsty.i reseeeded 35 acres for him in mid may and it has taken but needs a lot of rain to come on
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The Mrs place wouldn't be too far west from ye and they really didn't get any proper rain. Meadows with cover have held the moisture well and will be cut this weekend, but there's some of the grazing ground an esker and it's yellow - even though there isn't a lot on it, cattle are very content on it. Driving over and back there a few times a week, I can see that the rain fell very unevenly. It's so unusual some lads got a bit of rain and their next door neighbours got none.
 
Blackwater boy said:
Stocked at 3.3 on grazing block currently.
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Most dairy farmers talk about the grazing block, what would this normally be? 66% of total grassland area? Am i right in saying your demand is 50 but just grazing block, an it silage area was included aswell it would drop back to something like 37?

Im stocked at 3.9 over the total grass area (taking a stocking unit as 600kgs). My demand is 63 across total area.

Tried to bulked up the acres of silage last week (not closed long) so under serious pressure this for grass, so I'm buying bales for immediate feeding, and will move more cattle indoors over the next 10 days full-time:tdown:

most of my grass is badly stressed except one dry farm thats bombing it. Need to do some OM testing and other soil tests to see why its preforming so well (its not macro nutrient differences) as its very close to the rest of my ground. Unless its getting a wetting when I'm not around.
 
Ozzy Scott said:
Most dairy farmers talk about the grazing block, what would this normally be? 66% of total grassland area? Am i right in saying your demand is 50 but just grazing block, an it silage area was included aswell it would drop back to something like 37?

Im stocked at 3.9 over the total grass area (taking a stocking unit as 600kgs). My demand is 63 across total area.

Tried to bulked up the acres of silage last week (not closed long) so under serious pressure this for grass, so I'm buying bales for immediate feeding, and will move more cattle indoors over the next 10 days full-time:tdown:

most of my grass is badly stressed except one dry farm thats bombing it. Need to do some OM testing and other soil tests to see why its preforming so well (its not macro nutrient differences) as its very close to the rest of my ground. Unless its getting a wetting when I'm not around.
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Why count a whole farm when you can't graze a whole farm with cows?
Silage ground is not in the equation as that's for cutting so no point counting that. If my demand was 35 over all the ground and I had growth of 50 over all the ground id be fine on paper but accessible acres to cows is all that's counted. Different for dry stock guys as he can pick and choose what stocking rates to put where.
 
Blackwater boy said:
Why count a whole farm when you can't graze a whole farm with cows?
Silage ground is not in the equation as that's for cutting so no point counting that. If my demand was 35 over all the ground and I had growth of 50 over all the ground id be fine on paper but accessible acres to cows is all that's counted. Different for dry stock guys as he can pick and choose what stocking rates to put where.
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Im trying to understand what way you dairy lads calculate it. So replacements/stock bull/calves are not included unless they are grazing the milking block.

Your rate of 3.3 is only cows on the milking grazing areas only?? how do lads with say 500kgs jersey cows differentiate over say your cows at 650 when talking in LU stocking rate?

I calculate all animals over every grass ac, what grows over 63 a week is my silage. I have no delicated silage area
 
Ozzy Scott said:
Im trying to understand what way you dairy lads calculate it. So replacements/stock bull/calves are not included unless they are grazing the milking block.

Your rate of 3.3 is only cows on the milking grazing areas only?? how do lads with say 500kgs jersey cows differentiate over say your cows at 650 when talking in LU stocking rate?

I calculate all animals over every grass ac, what grows over 63 a week is my silage. I have no delicated silage area
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I've big cows so I'm calling them 1, can't comment on smaller cows.
Yes my rate of 3.3 is just cows on grazing area with only a few acres of that out for 2nd cut and a few acres that are reseeded that are only just fit to graze later this week.
I have some dedicated silage area but in the main its cut where the calves and heifers are and maize and beet are on tillage ground away from the yard
 
Blackwater boy said:
I've big cows so I'm calling them 1, can't comment on smaller cows.
Yes my rate of 3.3 is just cows on grazing area with only a few acres of that out for 2nd cut and a few acres that are reseeded that are only just fit to graze later this week.
I have some dedicated silage area but in the main its cut where the calves and heifers are and maize and beet are on tillage ground away from the yard
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do they drop these acres in and out when doing the calculations, or are they considered the grazing area year long.

Would it not have been easier to work the system, on demand, therefore allowing your bigger cows to be accurate benched marked against lads running little poms of Jerseys
 
Ozzy Scott said:
do they drop these acres in and out when doing the calculations, or are they considered the grazing area year long.

Would it not have been easier to work the system, on demand, therefore allowing your bigger cows to be accurate benched marked against lads running little poms of Jerseys
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Area graze able at a certain time is how I work it out, heifers and calves come and go between home and over the road dependent on where the grass is so stocking rate goes up and down all year long dependent on where they are and if there is enough, too much or too little grass in that bit of land.
I can't comment on the cross bred guys but I work with what I have, as I've said I don't grass measure but work off my neighbours figures within reason on course. I only take real heed of growth rates and demand when in a real wet spell or real dey spell where things run right quick, rest of the year happy go lucky and keep pulling out paddocks etc
 
Ozzy Scott said:
Most dairy farmers talk about the grazing block, what would this normally be? 66% of total grassland area? Am i right in saying your demand is 50 but just grazing block, an it silage area was included aswell it would drop back to something like 37?

Im stocked at 3.9 over the total grass area (taking a stocking unit as 600kgs). My demand is 63 across total area.

Tried to bulked up the acres of silage last week (not closed long) so under serious pressure this for grass, so I'm buying bales for immediate feeding, and will move more cattle indoors over the next 10 days full-time:tdown:

most of my grass is badly stressed except one dry farm thats bombing it. Need to do some OM testing and other soil tests to see why its preforming so well (its not macro nutrient differences) as its very close to the rest of my ground. Unless its getting a wetting when I'm not around.
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Hey Ozzy, just a quick query on your numbers above, I always worked on the basis that animals eat 2% of LW as DM/day never been too far out when feeding indoors, that would give 3.9 x 600 x 0.02 = 46.8 kgDM/day what figures are you using to get 63kgDM/day? Not trying to be snotty just wondering am I missing something.
 
Last 3 week's measurements; growth rates were 104kgs 75kgs and 48kgs. Bales have been taken out, but with a demand of 53 kgs, we could well have to introduce silage in to the diet. Have upped the meal from 0.4kgs to 2kgs.
 
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