Ciaran Bartley – June 2024
Grass growth at the time of writing is my biggest complaint. It’s hard to put my finger on the reason for it but growth this year seems abnormally low.
Recovery of swards post grazing is worse than anything I have ever seen at this time of year. I acknowledge that there is a chilly northerly wind blowing, but ground is dry and I have kept up to date with fertilizer application and cool dry weather in spring would never see growth rates as low as this.
My growth last week was only 28kg per day and with a demand of 46kg I will be eating into what covers I have available. I have a cover of 171kg per LU which is low but not a total disaster yet.
I may look to sell some stores live if this keeps up much longer but there is a warm dry spell on the way so hopefully this will turn things fast. Silage has been harvested and I have in excess of 750 bales made so far, I will make another 200 between second cut and paddocks as the year progresses hopefully but I will need a bit of an improvement in growth for this to happen.
My red clover silage is at the point of spraying now at the moment and I plan to spray CloverMax as my post emergent spray when the time is right.
I will begin to weigh all groups of cattle from now on and will target the biggest most forward Friesian steers for feeding at grass to target an October finish off grass. I will build them up to 5kg of meal at grass with a target total meal intake of 450kg from July to October.
This system worked well the past few years and I have the farm set up that cattle will walk into the yard and eat meal from a feed passage, which cuts down on labour drawing meal out the field.
Slurry has been spread on all silage ground now and I will top this up with 20 units of protected urea for grazing or 60 units of protected urea for second cut.
Beef prices have improved slightly in the past few weeks but a strong price this back end will be essential to mitigate against the spiralling costs that we incurred in 2023 and 2024.
With a prediction of near 100,000 less cattle available for killing in the second half of 2024 vs the same period last year I’m hoping prices will hold up stronger this back end than in previous years.