There has been a huge improvement in the weather this week. Some farmers are reporting that growth is being held back with the cold winds, but there is good drying at the same time. Ground is really benefitting from the dry weather and grazing conditions are almost perfect.

Farmers on heavier land are finding that paddocks are drying out. They are able to get in and graze paddocks where a few weeks ago they had to skip in the first rotation because they were just too wet. Farmers are watching the grass wedge closely now and with grass supply ahead of demand they are taking the decision to pull paddocks out for silage.

It is very important that you monitor the recovery of regrowth from the first rotation in order to make decisions on how you are going to manage the second rotation. The weather forecast looks good for the remainder of the week.

Set your demand at a realistic rate for your farm. If this is 3.5 or 4 cows/ha then you need a growth rate of 60kg for the main grazing season to meet this demand. If you have a very good and dry farm some will set at 5 cows/ha and will attempt to fertilise so they grow 80kg/day for the main grazing season.

Try and do the simple things right, by grazing down to between 4cm and 4.5cm, this will ensure excellent regrowth for the following rotation.

Pre-grazing yields of 1,300kg DM/ha to 1,600kg DM/ha (8cm to 10cm) are ideal to let cows into. If taking out silage paddocks for first cut, top up with nitrogen so they get 90 to 100 units of nitrogen per acre. The nights are still pretty chilly and it is important that cows are getting their minerals, to avoid grass tetany.

We have had plenty of reports of tetany from around the country, so it is essential to put magnesium on the menu.

Our man in west Clare says conditions are improving and growth is moving in the right direction. He has all the animals out apart from 12 calves. His average farm cover is 705kg. Growth rate this week is 26.7kg and demand is 38kg.

Cows are milking 29.99 litres at 4.02% fat and 3.32% protein. His cows have been out by day since 3 April and out night and day since 6 April.

Mid-Kerry’s average farm cover is 1,050kg/ha and growth rate is 41.1kg. Demand is 59.5kg and the pre-grazing yield is 1,410kg/ha. Cover per cow is 247kg and the stocking rate is 4.25 cows/ha.

His first round won’t be finished until 22 April and he is spreading one bag of urea per acre after cows.

Southwest Wexford has brought most of his heifers home for AI next week. He has closed most of the silage ground. His cover is 216kg. He blanket spread 30 units on the entire grazing platform.

South Tipp said: “What a difference a bit of heat makes.” His farm cover is 938kg/ha and growth is 69kg. Demand this week was 36kg, but this will go up to 58kg. He went out with some slurry this week with the trailing shoe.

STEVEN FITZGERALD, FARM MANAGER, TEAGASC CURTIN’S RESEARCH FARM

Growth rates are not as good as you would expect for the current weather, but grass is growing. This week’s growth was 46kg and demand is 62kg. Stocking rate has gone up to 3.86 cows/ha because we have taken up 36% of the area for silage. In other words, five out of 18 paddocks were taken up for silage and we spread 90 units of urea on these paddocks. All going according to plan, they should be ready to cut by the last week of May. We will be happy if we can take up 40% of the area and bale off strong covers during the growing season. We now have a 20-day rotation system and cows are allocated 16kg of grass. The farm cover is 740kg/ha and cover per cow is 192kg. We are grazing covers down to 3.5cm. Cows are milking 25.2 litres at 5.34% fat, 3.32% protein and 4.87% lactose. The SCC is 190. We are putting Calmag through the water and feeding 0.2kg of concentrates. We will do a pre-breeding check this week, wash out any dirty cows and deal with cows not cycling. In general cows are cycling, we had 30 last week and 30 again this week.

JOHN WALSH, KNOCKNAGEEHA, BOHERBUE, CO CORK

We are farming in a high rainfall area of north Cork, with about 50% dry and 50% heavy soils. Most of the farms around here have had about 1,500mm of rain since December, so ground is just about starting to dry out now. Typically, growth rates for the last week have been 45kg to 50kg/day, so the cover the cows are going into is increasing rapidly. We have let the cows out day and night for the last week. We have 35ha for grazing around the parlour, but are farming 53ha in total. There are nine cows left to calve, which is about 10% of the herd, three are springing down and the other six are looking on. Our stocking rate now is about 2.9 cows/ha. We started grazing by day on 10 March. Our first round of grazing won’t be finished for another 10 days. We have 40 units of nitrogen spread as pasture sward. Cows are milking 29 litres at 3.3% protein and 4.1% fat (2.2kg MS) and they are on 6kg of meal, but we will cut this back as more area becomes available for grazing. Breeding on this farm will start 5 or 6 May. Last year, the cows produced 400kg of milk solids per cow (4.0% fat and 3.45% protein).

HENRY WALSH, ORANMORE, CO GALWAY

The weather has been okay here, but not exceptional. Sunday and Tuesday were quite harsh days, with a cold bite in the wind. Saying that, we have had some nice days. Growth is at 41kg/ha and demand is 37kg/ha. The farm cover is 528kg/ha and the cover per cow is 173kg. Cows are milking 24.7litres at 4.3% fat, 3.46% protein and 1.96 MS. Our SCC is 155. We had an issue with some heifers coming off the woodchip pad with high SCC, but we have treated them with tubes and antibiotics. We have been feeding 3kg of a 14% nut since calving. It contains 35% maize and 25% barley. We plan on reducing this down to 2kg next week. At the moment 95% of the cows are calved, I plan to start breeding on 5 May, which will mean calving begins on 10 February. This date works well for my system and ties in well with grass supply. Last week we condition scored all the cows, they averaged 2.8. We have put 10 cows on once-a-day milking because they were at 2.5. Heifers averaged 297kg and I hope to see them gain another 25kg before breeding. I blanket-spread 25 units of urea on 1 March and 29 March, I plan to spread another 25 units on Saturday. I will burn off ground for reseeding in the next few days, and spread the woodchip from the pad on it. The seedbed will be prepared with a power harrow and predominantly tetraploid varieties will be sown.

TOMMIE ROCHE, CASTLEISLAND, CO KERRY

Growth is flying here over the last week, the strong winds and sunshine have dried the place out and made grazing far easier. We started grazing on 1 March and now have about five days left on the first rotation. Some of the paddocks left have covers of 1,500kg DM/ha, while others were slow to warm up this spring. I might skip those wetter paddocks for now and get back to them when they dry out a little more. The first paddocks of the second rotation looks to have decent covers of 1,300DM/ha. I have taken out about 35 acres for first-cut silage and pushed the stocking rate to 2.75 cows/ha. I might pull another few paddocks out by the end of the week for silage, but I will be cautious not to move too quick. I blanket-spread the whole farm with 40 units of urea on 1 March, the last few days I spread 40 units on half of the farm and will get to the remaining paddocks by the end of the week. Cows are milking 27 litres at 3.84% fat and 3.36% protein. They get 1.4kg of concentrates in the parlour, morning and evening. There are six cows left to calve. I use high EBI (200) Friesian bulls and replacement heifers have EBI’s of over 180. I was very happy with the results I have got from pulling a ripper through 40 acres last summer. It seemed to break up the pan and ground greened up this spring earlier than usual.