Cattle housed yet 2016

The Cuban · 27-12-2016 11:42am

For sure winter hasnt started yet. The grass growth out there is unreal at the moment. All I`m worried about now is not having any slurry to add back onto the land later on in the year.

jimmy G M · 27-12-2016 11:49am

Where abouts are you farming Cuban?

Buford T. Justice XIX · 27-12-2016 12:16pm

The Cuban wrote: »

For sure winter hasnt started yet. The grass growth out there is unreal at the moment. All I`m worried about now is not having any slurry to add back onto the land later on in the year.

Why would that be a worry? It's the cattle spreading it instead of a tractor and tanker.

Money saved in spreading, as long as you will have grass available for the cattle later in spring.

dh1985 · 27-12-2016 12:36pm

The Cuban wrote: »

For sure winter hasnt started yet. The grass growth out there is unreal at the moment. All I`m worried about now is not having any slurry to add back onto the land later on in the year.

You must actually be farming in Cuba. 6 degree.max. promised here all week. Frost at night. Soil temp at below 6deg. Zero growth.

Sam Kade · 27-12-2016 1:16pm

The Cuban wrote: »

I had planned on housing them today but we are promised 16C today. Sure it would be the work of a madman to have cattle housed in this weather.
Was talking to some of the dairy lads and at the rate the grass is growing again they are hoping to have the cows back out on grass for a few hours each day within a few weeks.

The start of this year we had plenty grass but as the saying goes January grass is never eaten and sure enough it melted before grazing started.

Keepgrowing · 27-12-2016 1:19pm

Sam Kade wrote: »

The start of this year we had plenty grass but as the saying goes January grass is never eaten and sure enough it melted before grazing started.

Did a walk yesterday and could let out cows in 2 wks if they were calved. Super winter growth to date

Bass Reeves · 27-12-2016 2:17pm

Sam Kade wrote: »

The Cuban wrote: »

I had planned on housing them today but we are promised 16C today. Sure it would be the work of a madman to have cattle housed in this weather.
Was talking to some of the dairy lads and at the rate the grass is growing again they are hoping to have the cows back out on grass for a few hours each day within a few weeks.

The start of this year we had plenty grass but as the saying goes January grass is never eaten and sure enough it melted before grazing started.

It takes grass to grow grass. That nice soft grass you see now will harden and dry matter will increase in the grass. This is the grass that drystock will thrive in when you let them out in march. I have nice covers starting I am really happy will target early March turn out maybe even a few put late February. Cattle out that early if they are 550kgs will kill July/ early August.

Soil temperature above 6C grass growing slowly. It will go below that in next week or two. you then hope that it will climb in early March. We have not had a kind winter for a few years. last few years struggled to get cattle out until Mid March. Maybe we will be out 10_12 days earlier this year.

PMU · 28-12-2016 3:47pm

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Did a walk yesterday and could let out cows in 2 wks if they were calved. Super winter growth to date

whats the average for nov -dec

patsy_mccabe · 28-12-2016 3:57pm

I still have a few out. Will be out another week id say. Had some out last year till the weather turned poor in February.

Sam Kade · 28-12-2016 4:06pm

If the weather stays dry for another few days I'll let the dry cows out because I have to put up new barriers in the shed. I only have a straight rail and feeding haylage type bales and it is murder cleaning out what they drag through the barrier. I've a weeks supply of grass that wasn't grazed before they came in. I'll have plenty grass in early March.

Bullocks · 28-12-2016 7:33pm

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Did a walk yesterday and could let out cows in 2 wks if they were calved. Super winter growth to date

Even our miserable west of ireland land is getting greener now , Ive never seen it as dry and warm for this time of the year . Im seriously thinking of letting out light weanlins in the next couple of weeks but I dont want to put too much strain on the fathers heart:D

Anyone got a long range forecast on how the spring is to pan out ?

CloughCasey1 · 28-12-2016 7:46pm

Bullocks wrote: »

Even our miserable west of ireland land is getting greener now , Ive never seen it as dry and warm for this time of the year . Im seriously thinking of letting out light weanlins in the next couple of weeks but I dont want to put too much strain on the fathers heart:D

Anyone got a long range forecast on how the spring is to pan out ?

Hard to call. the experts over in the weather forum cant agree on the day of the week never mind anything promised outside of 5 days. Pedigree 6 would be the closest thing to Jean Byrne we have on f&f.

charolais0153 · 28-12-2016 8:50pm

Bullocks wrote: »

Even our miserable west of ireland land is getting greener now , Ive never seen it as dry and warm for this time of the year . Im seriously thinking of letting out light weanlins in the next couple of weeks but I dont want to put too much strain on the fathers heart:D

Anyone got a long range forecast on how the spring is to pan out ?

They were predicting a cold winter so I wouldn't pay much heed to anything over five days

pedigree 6 · 28-12-2016 9:58pm

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Hard to call. the experts over in the weather forum cant agree on the day of the week never mind anything promised outside of 5 days. Pedigree 6 would be the closest thing to Jean Byrne we have on f&f.

Go way out of that will you. Jean Byrne is a fine thing in a dress, me however.....:p

I wouldn't be no expert or anything just generally keep an eye on the weather charts. I'd say Arklow is a good judge as well.
But anyway it looks like we are in for a general cool down in January.
No storms or mild wet weather but generally dry cool weather to maybe some possible wintriness at times.
Mostly watchers are waiting for this cold front and arctic plunge at the weekend to see what way the different models go from there.

ArKl0w · 28-12-2016 11:23pm

Couple of things
I know it's been a wetter year over much of the west but not so in Leinster
It's been warmer over all of the country in general especially so, so far this winter
It's been overall incredibly dry in the east,definitely the dryest here (east Wicklow) since I started recording rain over 15 years ago despite 2 or 3 very wet days in the fall
Now
That's going to come back to bite as nature is a great leveller
I've never known a 12 month period that doesn't do that and it doesn't have to be in a calendar term

I'm fairly convinced we'll all see lots of frost,probably some snow and a reversal of growth in January
The weather models are showing set ups that could potentially drive in a lot of very cold weather in January with periods similar to 2010,so my advice would be to ask if you are prepared?
Of course Mother Nature is the boss and chaos theory can Trump weather models so the most wintry outlook might not happen
There is unfortunately an equally distasteful outlook likely and that's lots and lots of rain reversing good land trafficability because if the cold weather stays just to our east,we'll end up under stuck Atlantic weather fronts that can't clear away because Europe is blocked

Anyhow I'll shut up now,just be prepared regardless

pedigree 6 · 29-12-2016 12:10am

Ah ffs Arklow.:P

Now you have the farmers thinking they're going to be washed out of it completely when there's not a sign of a low pressure system coming over this country.
The nearest we're getting to low pressure systems is it going north over our Atlantic high and ending up to our east over Europe.

(I don't buy this thing of always levelling out. There's always some record i.e being the wettest in 20 years or the driest in 50 years or since records began.
You'll have averages but you need the extremes to set the average).

CloughCasey1 · 29-12-2016 12:12am

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Ah ffs Arklow.:P

Now you have the farmers thinking they're going to be washed out of it completely when there's not a sign of a low pressure system coming over this country.
The nearest we're getting to low pressure systems is it going north over our Atlantic high and ending up to our east over Europe.

(I don't buy this thing of always levelling out. There's always some record i.e being the wettest in 20 years or the driest in 50 years or since records began.
You'll have averages but you need the extremes to set the average).

What i tell ye....☺

pedigree 6 · 29-12-2016 12:31am

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

What i tell ye....☺

If you can get two people to agree on what the weather is going to be in two weeks time when 40 different weather models each have a different version with a small low pressure early in a run or the difference being whether you are on the east or the west of an anticyclonic system and where the air is coming from in that system and then the models try to get an average of those 40 models and then say that that will be our weather in two weeks time and then it changes to an outlier model, you're doing well.

GrasstoMilk · 29-12-2016 7:09am

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Ah ffs Arklow.:P

Now you have the farmers thinking they're going to be washed out of it completely when there's not a sign of a low pressure system coming over this country.
The nearest we're getting to low pressure systems is it going north over our Atlantic high and ending up to our east over Europe.

(I don't buy this thing of always levelling out. There's always some record i.e being the wettest in 20 years or the driest in 50 years or since records began.
You'll have averages but you need the extremes to set the average).

I think the wet weather for this year has been pretty well levelled out with the spring we had

pedigree 6 · 29-12-2016 10:16am

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

I think the wet weather for this year has been pretty well levelled out with the spring we had

You can tell that its a bugbear of mine when people want to try and average out the weather records to the same as other years.
We get four dry months and then they say "oh we'll pay for this yet" so we must be going to get four wet months to compensate. I mean wtf.
The weather doesn't look at any records and say I'll have to average out this year so I'll have to dump 6inches on the last day of the year.
How people even think this way amazes me.
(Btw this is not aimed at anyone poster).

The weather always does its own thing.
When you think you have it figured out, you'll find out you've just finished the first chapter in the book and there's twelve chapters left.

On the phone now so can't really link but met eireann have records and summaries on their website for anyone that's interested.

ArKl0w · 29-12-2016 10:58am

It's not averaging out,weather always has extremes but generally brings in a 12 month period roughly the same total

pedigree 6 · 29-12-2016 12:05pm

ArKl0w wrote: »

It's not averaging out,weather always has extremes but generally brings in a 12 month period roughly the same total

That's because it's over a long period and usually if you wait long enough you'll get the weather you want.
There's a simplistic statement.

Anyway how did this year's rainfall total compare with other years since you started recording?

We had a wet spring as grasstomilk said so it should balance out the autumn winter.

ArKl0w · 29-12-2016 12:32pm

In the period January to December,I'm down about 25% but October to October I'm actually up as last winters storms are included
Weather recorded for ME goes from 9am to 9am so 901am is in a different day to 859am
I fully expect that 25% to be made up in the next 3 or 4 months as usual as calendars are man made,weather isn't

Incidentally the Atlantic hasn't been blocked (yet) its odds on that it will be by high pressure out there (which translated for others here means that if the high is not too close to Ireland,our weather then has to come from the north or East)
But the blocking doesn't close down the Atlantic altogether ,it just forces the jet South and its weather systems
That doesn't mean they can't make their way up over the south of Ireland which with cold air clashing with warm means a lot of rain and on its northern edge if there's enough air coming from a cold enough east,Snow
Jan 6th to 9th 1982 is a famous extreme example
14ft drifts here and the by roads blocked for a week in that one
Drifts to the tree tops on the hills

This mornings model output remains very cold past January 6th btw everyone ,it's being watched if you get me ? :eek:

pedigree 6 · 29-12-2016 1:04pm

ArKl0w wrote: »

In the period January to December,I'm down about 25% but October to October I'm actually up as last winters storms are included
Weather recorded for ME goes from 9am to 9am so 901am is in a different day to 859am
I fully expect that 25% to be made up in the next 3 or 4 months as usual as calendars are man made,weather isn't

Incidentally the Atlantic hasn't been blocked (yet) its odds on that it will be by high pressure out there (which translated for others here means that if the high is not too close to Ireland,our weather then has to come from the north or East)
But the blocking doesn't close down the Atlantic altogether ,it just forces the jet South and its weather systems
That doesn't mean they can't make their way up over the south of Ireland which with cold air clashing with warm means a lot of rain and on its northern edge if there's enough air coming from a cold enough east,Snow
Jan 6th to 9th 1982 is a famous extreme example
14ft drifts here and the by roads blocked for a week in that one
Drifts to the tree tops on the hills

This mornings model output remains very cold past January 6th btw everyone ,it's being watched if you get me ? :eek:

Are you still looking for snow?:P:D
Who knows maybe we'll get it.

You can't move the goalposts when you want to. I.e change from jan to dec .

Any way it's been interesting having the term.:pac:

For the general population.
(if you have been affected by this discussion the snow seekers helpline is 1800-FREEZE. If you want to find out about the weather recording stations in your area, click on the following links).
http://www.met.ie/climate/monthly-data.asp

http://www.met.ie/climate-request/ (and zoom in on the map for your local station)

ArKl0w · 29-12-2016 1:29pm

On a practical level NO
Some of us need our milk collected still and drawing it down to the M11 ala 2010 is not on my bucket list!

Unusual weather excites though,you know yourself

Timmaay · 29-12-2016 1:47pm

ArKl0w wrote: »

On a practical level NO
Some of us need our milk collected still and drawing it down to the M11 ala 2010 is not on my bucket list!

Unusual weather excites though,you know yourself

Where were you drawing it to? If it was the tap pub I was prb chatting away to ya most days ha. But anyways my ski trip on the 14th Jan is fully dependent on some nice wet Atlantic fronts coming in and dumping plenty of snow on the Alps, feckall snow there at the minute.

ArKl0w · 29-12-2016 1:57pm

Timmaay wrote: »

Where were you drawing it to? If it was the tap pub I was prb chatting away to ya most days ha. But anyways my ski trip on the 14th Jan is fully dependent on some nice wet Atlantic fronts coming in and dumping plenty of snow on the Alps, feckall snow there at the minute.

Ski ing ? Try Whistler

whelan2 · 29-12-2016 2:10pm

Was talking to an 82 year old this morning. He has never seen buds on trees in December.

Buford T. Justice XIX · 29-12-2016 2:20pm

whelan2 wrote: »

Was talking to an 82 year old this morning. He has never seen buds on trees in December.

I've seen buds on briars this morning, 'tis mental altogether.

Bass Reeves · 29-12-2016 2:32pm

This thread has turned into a weather thread rather than a discussion about when cattle should be housed

Cattle housed yet 2016

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