06 July 2022

DairyBeef 500 summer farm update – Aidan Maguire

DairyBeef 500 summer farm update - Aidan Maguire

Over 50 mm of rain has fallen around Navan recently. This was a welcome sight for Aidan Maguire who has been struggling to match grass demand to grass growth. DairyBeef 500 advisor Fergal Maguire gives an update on Aidan Maguire’s farm

Grass shortage

Currently grass cover per livestock unit is low at 137 kg per LU. In order to avoid running into a tailspin Aidan has taken a number of measures to alleviate the grass shortage. Autumn born weanlings have being moved over to an out farm that was originally held up for silage to reduce demand. This ground had received a bag and a half of protected Urea and had a cover of 1400 so it is ideal for these cattle. There is no point in feeding expensive silage bales if part of the silage ground can be grazed. Good quality silage bales will be fed to 18 month old heifers in order to slow down rotation length to 28 days. Hopefully these measures along with the rain will help grass covers per LU to recover above 150 kg of Dry matter in the next 10 days.

Weighing cattle

This week the plan is for all cattle on the farm to be weighed. All beef breed bullocks above 480 kgs along with any Friesian bullocks above 500 kgs liveweight with a decent level of cover will be drafted and fed 4 kgs of meal along with good quality grass. The aim for these cattle is to kill out at around 300 kgs with a fat score of above 2 +.The amount of grass that the spring born calves are eating is increasing every day so reducing demand of the older cattle as we move through the summer is essential.

Fertiliser

Before the rain came, 26 units of protected Urea was spread on the whole grazing block as grass had started to look like it was running low on Nitrogen. So far chemical N usage is down about 20% so maybe that is one of reasons why grass looks a bit stressed along with the very dry conditions that this region had experienced during the spring. Five acres of a Red Clover sward was established in April, this will hopefully be cut for silage before mid July. So far it has only received 3 bags of 10-10-20 at sowing. It will be topped up with 3000 gallons of slurry per acre after silage is cut and another cut of silage will be taken in August. The red clover that was established in 2021 has very little red clover in it. This is being put down to the fact that Aidan continued to use high levels of N fertiliser on the sward. The new Red Clover sward will not receive any chemical N fertiliser over its lifetime.

Calves

Calves are still currently on 1 kg of meal and grass but the meal will be cut once grass growth rates improve. Calves are out 7 weeks now and were given a white drench after 4 weeks on grass, a dung sample will be taken this week in order to determine if they require another dose now.

Aidan Maguire is currently farming 46 hectares outside Navan Co Meath. His current system is calf to 20 month old heifers and 22- 24 month old steers.