With the wind and rain continuing this week, grazing is increasingly more difficult on both heavy and dry land. Yesterday (Tuesday), over 18mm of rain fell across the country. The wet weather means some farmers are bringing cows in by night, or standing off cows, if the showers are very heavy.

This approach means cows will only go to paddocks to graze and will be brought in before they start walking. A back wire is essential now to ensure cows clean up paddocks and don’t walk back over what has already been grazed. Getting paddocks cleaned out sufficiently tight will become more difficult now, especially if covers are heavy.

You should have 40% of the farm left to graze this week if you started closing paddocks in the first week of October. This area may be lower if cows are wasting grass in paddocks due to large amounts of rainfall.

The good news is regrowths on paddocks closed in early October have been very good and many of these paddocks have covers of 500-700kg DM/ha. These paddocks should have covers of over 1,000kg DM/ha next spring.

Our farmer in mid-Kerry has an average farm cover of 974kg DM/ha (321kg DM/cow) and a growth rate of 45kg DM/ha/day, with a demand of 51.5kg DM/ha/day.

Cows are entering pre-grazing covers of 1,900kg DM/ha and producing 13.8 litres at 4.84% fat and 3.21% protein (1.14kg MS).

He is feeding 2kg of concentrates and a bale of hay is left in front of the animals after milking, so they can pick at it when they want. He got a lot of rain on Monday night, but ground conditions are still very good. About 55% of the grazing platform is now closed off.

In south Tipperary, our farmer had a deluge of rain this morning (Wednesday). His growth rate is 25kg DM/ha/day and his demand is 51kg DM/ha/day. This ratio is helping him get through covers and he has 42% grazed. He is very happy with the regrowths on paddocks already closed. His average farm cover is 946kg DM/ha (297kg DM/cow). Cows are milking 13.16 litres at 4.94% fat and 3.93% protein (1.2kg MS) and are getting 2kg of concentrates. He finds it a lot easier to clean out paddocks without calved cows on buffer feeding.

In west Cork, our farmer had an awful lot of grass a week ago, but it seems to be disappearing very fast. He has dry cows on the grazing platform too, so demand is high. His average farm cover is 913kg DM/ha and the growth rate is 23kg DM/ha/day. All cows are still outside and he will be drying off next weekend. It looks like everything will be closed off by 10 November.

In south Wexford, our farmer has an average farm cover of 900kg DM/ha, his growth rate is 30kg DM/ha/day and his stocking rate is 2.16 LU/ha. He has 70% of the grazing platform closed and will be closing in two weeks’ time with an AFC of 700kg DM/ha. Regrowths have been excellent and he has 900kg DM/ha on the first paddock that was closed.

In mid-Clare, our farmer has 78% of the area closed. Cows are milking 12 litres at 4.69% fat, 4.13% protein and 298 SCC. He is feeding 4kg of meal and got 40mm of rain over the week.

Steven Fitzgerald, farm manager, Teagasc Curtins Research Farm

The quantity of grass available on the farm is running out fast. We have an average farm cover of 715kg DM/ha (292kg DM/cow) with a stocking rate of 2.96 LU/ha. Our growth rate is still reasonably high at 36kg DM/ha/day and it is close enough to our demand of 38kg DM/ha/day. Cows are flying through pre-grazing covers of 1,500-1,600kg DM/ha. We have 70% of the farm grazed at this stage, leaving 30% to go. This means we have another 2.5 weeks’ worth of grazing left. To try and extend the grazing, we will dry off 20% of the herd as soon as possible. The aim will be to dry off young cows, cows with poor body condition and cows yielding 10 litres or less. These will be housed and put on a diet of straw and baled silage. Drying off will help build condition in these cows and should leave them well set up for calving next spring. Our stocking rate will drop off to 2.2 LU/ha once these cows are gone in. Grazing conditions are holding up well and there is a cover of 950kg DM/ha on the first paddock that was closed at the beginning of October. Cows are still on 12-hour allocations and this method is working well. We are not buffering cows with silage. The cows are currently milking 13 litres at 5.58% fat, 4.28% protein (1.32kg MS), 4.7% lactose and 170 SCC.

Donal Patton, Farm Manager, Ballyhaise Research Farm

The rain is making ground conditions a good deal wetter here, which is making clean out more difficult. We have an average farm cover of 860kg DM/ha (290kg/cow). Our growth rate is 30kg DM/ha/day and demand is 42kg DM/ha/day. Cows are entering pre-grazing covers of 2,400kg DM/ha and yesterday (Tuesday) a paddock was grazed to 4.5cm due to the rain, which was a little disappointing. We have 68% of the area grazed now, which is well on track for our target of 70% by 1 November. I expect grazing will continue for another 10 to 15 days after that, but I intend to close when average farm cover is 600kg DM/ha. I think it is important that farmers close the farm when they hit a similar AFC, because otherwise they might not have enough grass in spring. We don’t mind carrying over strong paddocks of 1,500kg DM/ha, because in a good winter these could grow 3kg DM/day (300kg DM/ha after 100 days). This would mean cows would be going into covers of 1,800kg DM/ha. Some might say that’s a very strong cover, but in my experience it is better to have the grass there, especially if there was no growth during winter. Cows are getting 3kg of concentrates and are milking 13.1 litres at 5.18% fat, 4.14% protein (1.25kg MS) and 227 SCC. We have produced 390kg of milk solids so far this year and should produce 420kg by the end of the year (1,290kg MS/ha).

John Roche, Baltinglass, Co Wicklow

Grazing conditions are still very good here in Wicklow. We have an average farm cover (AFC) of 670kg DM/ha (266kg DM/cow). Our growth rate is 29kg DM/ha/day and demand is 33kg DM/ha/day. I don’t like to build the AFC too high on this farm, because sometimes it can be difficult to graze off if the weather comes wet. There is 60% of the grazing platform grazed now and the spring-calving cows are in by night, where they get silage, and graze during the day. The regrowths on the paddocks already grazed have been excellent, but I will watch them closely because I don’t want to carry over covers of >1,200kg DM/ha. We have 50 autumn-calving cows, calving started 1 September and there are 42 cows currently calved. These cows are running with the 110 spring-calved cows. The cows are milking 16.5 litres at 4.17% fat, 3.42% protein and 189 SCC. There is a big variation between autumn-calving and spring-calving cows. Autumn-calvers are fed 5kg of concentrates and spring-calvers are getting 1.5kg. I will be milking about 70 cows during the winter between autumn-calvers that I don’t sell and spring-calving cows that won’t be dried off until January. I am holding a sale on 1 November of 50 head of pedigree Holstein Friesian cattle, including 30 autumn freshly-calved cows, eight cows due to calf and 12 heifer calves. The sale commences at 1pm on my farm.

Noel O’Toole, Kilimore, Co Galway

We got a bit of rain this week, but ground conditions are still very good. I did my farm walk on Monday and the growth rate was 43kg DM/ha/day and demand was 50kg DM/ha/day. Soil temperature was very high on Monday at 13.4°C, but with frost this morning (Wednesday) and cold rain, I expect growth rates to come back. The farm cover is 760kg DM/ha (233kg DM/cow) at a stocking rate of 3.26 LU/ha. Cows are entering pre-grazing covers of 2,000kg DM/ha and are cleaning them out well. I have set the autumn target to having 80% of the grazing platform grazed by the end of the month. This might seem a little much, but I plan on drying off the cows in mid-November for quota reasons, so I feel it is better to have plenty of good-quality grass in front of them as they calve in February, when demand is high and grass is worth more to them. I have started feeding cows 3kg of silage at the feed face after milking. Cows get 0.6kg of concentrates to entice them into the parlour and are milking 11 litres at 5.41% fat, 4.21% protein (1.08kg MS) and 178 SCC. Currently, there are 134 cows milking. Twenty cows were dried off and will be sold once I get a herd test. I gave all the milking cows and heifers a live IBR booster vaccine and plan on doing this every six months.