10 December 2023

Reflecting on 2023 with PastureBase Ireland

2023 has been a difficult year for grassland managers and the Teagasc Grass10 and PastureBase Ireland teams reflected on some of the key learnings from this grazing year on a recent webinar.

The ‘Reflecting on 2023 with PastureBase Ireland’ webinar featured Joseph Dunphy and Caitlin Looney of Teagasc Grass10 and Ciarán Hearn from PastureBase Ireland, who were also joined by dairy farmer Patrick O’Neill who reflected on his 2023 grazing year.

Ciarán noted that there was a big increase in the usage of PastureBase Ireland in 2023. Last year, ~3,500 farmers recorded more than 10 covers on the platform, this increased to 6,000 in 2023. Additionally, he noted, cover recordings peaked in the summer period when ~4,500 covers were recorded on a weekly basis.

Grass growth

Although grazing conditions were challenging for much of this year, Ciarán noted that total yields remained fairly similar to previous years. Dairy farmers who recorded >30 cover events recorded an annual tonnage of 12.4t DM/ha. For beef and sheep farms recording >20 cover events, grass yields of 10.5t DM/ha and 11.6t DM/ha, respectively, were recorded.

PastureBase Ireland hosts many features to enable farmers to become more efficient grassland managers. One of the recently introduced features highlighted by Ciarán was the PastureBase Scorecard, which guides farmers towards areas where improvements can be made.

Another key feature expected to be rolled out on PastureBase Ireland next year is a growth predictor at an individual farm basis. Already, the grassland team at Teagasc Moorepark publish grass growth predictions twice weekly on a by county basis. Initially, Ciarán said, the by farm prediction will be available to farmers who have completed more than 35 grass walks in 2023 and the model used will be trialled for the first part of the year. If successful, it will then be rolled out to farms who completed 30 walks in 2023.

Joseph Dunphy, Teagasc Grass10 Advisor, also provided an overview of what is required to achieve excellence in grassland management in 2024 and why this is critical given the changes in input costs on Irish farms over recent years.

The key elements to this, which are only occurring on <5% of farms currently, include:

• Grazing infrastructure – having a mapped farm with two gaps per paddock and water and roadways;
• Clover-based low chemical nitrogen swards – having at least 25% of the grazing platform in high levels of clover;
• Soil fertility – >50% of grazing platform at optimum for phosphorous (P), potassium (K) and pH;
• The completion of >30 measures per year;
• Active spring feed budget and spring rotation planner;
• All fertiliser (chemical and organic) recorded on PastureBase Ireland.

For more information on this webinar, watch the webinar recording below: