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What a Difference a year makes!

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  • 30-09-2013 7:41pm
    #1
    Bleating Lamb
    Registered Users Posts: 4,575 ✭✭✭


    How are people for grass and grazing conditions?....was looking at last years diary at wkd,nearly all stock were housed this time last year!,was still grass but ground was far too wet to leave them out,
    ..........this year,grass is still growing away and all cattle still out,land was v wet a fortnight ago but has soaked out again so hope not to have to house any stock for at least 3 weeks.


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    #2
    whelan1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,786 ✭✭✭✭whelan1


    we say that everyday here:D:D:D fields you could barely walk in last year are bone dry.... good for the head after last year and the spring we had i dont think we could have handled any more crap


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    #3
    freedominacup
    Registered Users Posts: 7,920 ✭✭✭freedominacup


    Yep this day last year feeding very little meal plenty of grass no real trafficability problems cows getting a small bit of silage at night after milking. This year everything getting silage now. Cows getting more than half their requirements indoors, heifers on silage since mid-august calves getting 4kg DM between meal and wholecrop. I've never seen a drought to drag on as long. I think we managed to get cows off silage for around a forthnight since first week of July. Any chance of a fund for weather victims this year?:rolleyes::rolleyes:


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    #4
    whelan1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,786 ✭✭✭✭whelan1


    freedominacup wrote: »
    Yep this day last year feeding very little meal plenty of grass no real trafficability problems cows getting a small bit of silage at night after milking. This year everything getting silage now. Cows getting more than half their requirements indoors, heifers on silage since mid-august calves getting 4kg DM between meal and wholecrop. I've never seen a drought to drag on as long. I think we managed to get cows off silage for around a forthnight since first week of July. Any chance of a fund for weather victims this year?:rolleyes::rolleyes:
    isnt it mad ye where flying this time last year , for a small country it differs so much, even from farm to farm, neighbour feeding silage too while we are up to our knees in grass


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    #5
    20silkcut
    Registered Users Posts: 2,555 ✭✭✭20silkcut


    Feeding cattle silage in yard. Impossible to scrape dried muck off yard place really looks dirty.

    Spread nitrogen back on 2nd sept it's still there sitting on the ground doing nothing.


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    #6
    Sharpshooter82
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,825 ✭✭✭Sharpshooter82


    plenty of grass around here


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    #7
    freedominacup
    Registered Users Posts: 7,920 ✭✭✭freedominacup


    20silkcut wrote: »
    Feeding cattle silage in yard. Impossible to scrape dried muck off yard place really looks dirty.

    Spread nitrogen back on 2nd sept it's still there sitting on the ground doing nothing.

    Yards were like they had been powerwashed this morning and despite that much rain still no give in the ground.


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    #8
    Timmaay
    Registered Users Posts: 11,394 ✭✭✭✭Timmaay


    Same here, dug a new entrance to one of the silage fields with a digger the wkend, I tried to drive down afew stakes using the bucket of the digger, not a hope, could hardly get them 3 or 4 inches into the ground.


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    #9
    biddy2013
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭biddy2013


    things are 300% better here this year than this time last year... hope it lasts


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    #10
    Miname
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,984 ✭✭✭Miname


    biddy2013 wrote: »
    things are 300% better here this year than this time last year... hope it lasts
    I have to say this time last year i had most of the cattle out. I have about 30% out now and will be holding the rest for another while yet, then again if a good burst of grass comes and its dry i could end up just opening the doors. next weekends weather doesnt look too promising.


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    #11
    Timmaay
    Registered Users Posts: 11,394 ✭✭✭✭Timmaay


    Miname wrote: »
    I have to say this time last year i had most of the cattle out. I have about 30% out now and will be holding the rest for another while yet, then again if a good burst of grass comes and its dry i could end up just opening the doors. next weekends weather doesnt look too promising.

    Could do with a little rain to wash in the urea :p

    Actually anyone remember paddys weekend last yr, utter washout, I remember thinking I shoulda bloody put the cows back in, they poached the access field they were passing through to bits, it took 6months to recover.


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    #12
    sheebadog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,246 ✭✭✭sheebadog


    Having to irrigate grass here now. We get two feet of rain over a couple of months and bone dry with 23 degrees.
    Last year was more kind with me.


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    #13
    Sam Kade
    Registered Users Posts: 12,313 ✭✭✭✭Sam Kade


    sheebadog wrote: »
    Having to irrigate grass here now. We get two feet of rain over a couple of months and bone dry with 23 degrees.
    Last year was more kind with me.
    Where's that?


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    #14
    sheebadog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,246 ✭✭✭sheebadog


    Sam Kade wrote: »
    Where's that?

    Pays de la Loire.


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    #15
    micraX
    Registered Users Posts: 752 ✭✭✭micraX


    It was better lest year, everything that was grown was sold. This year can't give away cabbage leeks turnips etc. And spuds, 70 euro a ton? Worse than cattle feed prices. And with the dry weather in the last week everyone's been out planting spuds, enough planted already to get to September. And it's only paddys day. Between 3 growers in north county Dublin they have 500acers planted. Don't think 'new season Rush Queens" will be expensive this year...


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    #16
    trixi2011
    Registered Users Posts: 1,535 ✭✭✭trixi2011


    sheebadog wrote: »
    Having to irrigate grass here now. We get two feet of rain over a couple of months and bone dry with 23 degrees.
    Last year was more kind with me.

    Got some great rains here resently irrigation hopefully finished for the year . this time last year we were in the middle of a drought feeding half the diet as meal and silage , have only feed 160 kg of supplement per cow so far this year


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    #17
    sheebadog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,246 ✭✭✭sheebadog


    trixi2011 wrote: »
    Got some great rains here resently irrigation hopefully finished for the year . this time last year we were in the middle of a drought feeding half the diet as meal and silage , have only feed 160 kg of supplement per cow so far this year

    We're promised 10mm of rain on Friday so here's hoping.


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    #18
    freedominacup
    Registered Users Posts: 7,920 ✭✭✭freedominacup


    sheebadog wrote: »
    We're promised 10mm of rain on Friday so here's hoping.

    What sort of soil are you on. 10mm wouldn't do us much good in a drought situation, it would just disappear unless there was a real change in the weather.


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    #19
    sheebadog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,246 ✭✭✭sheebadog


    freedominacup wrote: »
    What sort of soil are you on. 10mm wouldn't do us much good in a drought situation, it would just disappear unless there was a real change in the weather.

    It's not that we're in a drought situation Freedom, it's more of a weather issue.

    It went from inches of rain to a very sharp, dry, high temperatures. No moisture at all now. Irrigated grass last week and you could see it grow!


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    #20
    TUBBY
    Registered Users Posts: 828 ✭✭✭TUBBY


    sheebadog wrote: »
    It's not that we're in a drought situation Freedom, it's more of a weather issue.

    It went from inches of rain to a very sharp, dry, high temperatures. No moisture at all now. Irrigated grass last week and you could see it grow!

    Its a different world :)


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    #21
    trixi2011
    Registered Users Posts: 1,535 ✭✭✭trixi2011


    sheebadog wrote: »
    We're promised 10mm of rain on Friday so here's hoping.

    What sort of evaporation rates do you get in France in the main irrigation season we can be lose 4 \ 8 ml a day if we got 10ml irrigation would have to stay going


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    #22
    sheebadog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,246 ✭✭✭sheebadog


    trixi2011 wrote: »
    What sort of evaporation rates do you get in France in the main irrigation season we can be lose 4 \ 8 ml a day if we got 10ml irrigation would have to stay going

    I've no idea of evaporation rates Trixi but at this time of year it's not a problem. From June though temps often head over 35 degrees and all the water I'm the world won't make it grow. Maize, soya and sunflowers do fine in the heat.


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