grass measuring-growth rates 2014

stanflt

did my opening cover and have a cover of 784afc and 190 per lu

ground very dry

hoping to get cows out before the end of month


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IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img12/6852/dq0e.jpg[/IMG]

mahoney_j

That's a very good cover for time of year,fields lookin nice and lush and ready for urea!!.as for your dry ground,I'd regard our place as dry but went forces stroll last week and whilst not saturated it was a bit spongy.off skiing on the 11,load of fert arrived today and hope to be at slurry and that when I'm back on jan 20.cows out feb 1 all going well.

bob charles

talking to a farmer in Wexfjord today and he was saying they are only starting to get a little bad weather:eek:, done just over 3inchs of water in the last 6 days, add to that the storms before xmas, we must be close on 8" got in the last month. You wouldn't put a snipe out around here at the moment. It better start to dry off for a few days come the 15th as tanks are will be under a foot from the top

case 956

anyone use a platemeter for measuring or other gadgets

rancher

bob charles wrote: »

talking to a farmer in Wexfjord today and he was saying they are only starting to get a little bad weather:eek:, done just over 3inchs of water in the last 6 days, add to that the storms before xmas, we must be close on 8" got in the last month. You wouldn't put a snipe out around here at the moment. It better start to dry off for a few days come the 15th as tanks are will be under a foot from the top

supposed to be 4inches rain in the next week too. we've had about 6 inches in the last 2/3 wks in the midlands

linebacker52

Would you spread urea on covers 1200 plus or wait till they have been grazed.

Went for a walk today didn't measure but a lot of grass out there no cows calving till the end of the month.

bob charles

linebacker52 wrote: »

Would you spread urea on covers 1200 plus or wait till they have been grazed.

Went for a walk today didn't measure but a lot of grass out there no cows calving till the end of the month.

get it spread I would, but that would depend on your demand and traffic ability to graze.

mahoney_j

linebacker52 wrote: »

Would you spread urea on covers 1200 plus or wait till they have been grazed.

Went for a walk today didn't measure but a lot of grass out there no cows calving till the end of the month.

As soon as conditions allow half a bag,graze then slurry

biddy2013

case 956 wrote: »

anyone use a platemeter for measuring or other gadgets

someone on here had a pic of a wellie with the grass measurements on it, no need to buy a platemeter once you have the hang of it its all in the head

just do it

biddy2013 wrote: »

someone on here had a pic of a wellie with the grass measurements on it, no need to buy a platemeter once you have the hang of it its all in the head

Even better:

nashmach

bob charles wrote: »

talking to a farmer in Wexfjord today and he was saying they are only starting to get a little bad weather:eek:, done just over 3inchs of water in the last 6 days, add to that the storms before xmas, we must be close on 8" got in the last month. You wouldn't put a snipe out around here at the moment. It better start to dry off for a few days come the 15th as tanks are will be under a foot from the top

He must be on the very east coast of the county!!!!

PatQfarmer

biddy2013 wrote: »

someone on here had a pic of a wellie with the grass measurements on it, no need to buy a platemeter once you have the hang of it its all in the head

Got this on here, it is a great help.
Just invert and mark wellie.
Happy measuring:)

Timmaay

Was out in the paddocks this morning, eyeballed the cover on afew and ended up doing a full farm walk. Slapped the results into agrinet, Its giving me an AFC of 600, fairly low I'll admit, however the closing cover wasn't fantastic, the autumn rotation was thrown out the window with the drought hitting us till late sept. I do have 9acres at about 12/1300kgs/ha, so once things pickup for the rest of Jan I should be still on for a turnout in early feb. Place is still fairly wet I'll admit, certainly I'll need some dry weather before Feb to even consider any fertilizer or letting the cows out.

The late sept reseeds aren't doing fantastic either yet, one field is very patchy in places, as can be seen below:



The above was ploughed and harrowed, this next one was only harrowed. Its certainly slower to come back than the fully ploughed field, however ground conditions are much much better in it. Chickweed is a problem however, I'll have to spray it soon.


Plenty of surface water in places, I've still loads of drainage work to do on the farm. All I can do with this section is fence it off and graze around it for the spring:

jersey101

That first reseed doesn't look in good shape. Id be doubtful if it will come up

Timmaay

jersey101 wrote: »

That first reseed doesn't look in good shape. Id be doubtful if it will come up

That is the worst part of it I'll admit, very very sandy soil underneath, only 2/3inchs of topsoil in that part. Ploughing it was probably a mistake 2bh, but this was back last Sept in the drought, the paddock in the 2nd photo was done with just a powerharrow 1stly, it was tough work, so the contractor ploughed the 2nd one. I don't know what to do with it, the soil is still very soft, so might just go in with the wagtail and abit of seed, then roll it afterward, not a hope of doing that for a while, you'd plough it up again trying to drive on it ha!

biddy2013

jersey101 wrote: »

That first reseed doesn't look in good shape. Id be doubtful if it will come up

i resseded around the same time as you, what i did with barrow is fine, what was stitched in is not great, about 70% of it struck. one corner is very bad guy who stitched it is going to come back and redo the bad bit, he said the seed is still there going to put out slurry with umbilical(sp) when weather allows

jersey101

I have pictures of my reseeds but they won't upload. Idnearly put the heifers on them now only for the weather. There's 35ac with a cover of 1200+

Timmaay

When did you reseed??

jersey101

August. Still need to put up wire around it and put down water pipeing.

Timmaay

jersey101 wrote: »

August. Still need to put up wire around it and put down water pipeing.

Just after the bit of wet weather in the 1st wk of Aug I assume? Last two years we have reseeded in late sept, 2 yrs ago it was a silage paddock, which didn't comeup enough to graze till the follow April, which was only a light grazing anyways, and the fields this year in the photos, I think I'll be digging in my heals with my dad on any further reseeding and getting it done earlier!

jersey101

Timmaay wrote: »

Just after the bit of wet weather in the 1st wk of Aug I assume? Last two years we have reseeded in late sept, 2 yrs ago it was a silage paddock, which didn't comeup enough to graze till the follow April, which was only a light grazing anyways, and the fields this year in the photos, I think I'll be digging in my heals with my dad on any further reseeding and getting it done earlier!

Mid Aug when we did it l. Can't remember what the weather was like tbh. Going to sow 16 ac here in grass as soon as we can before spring is out

td5man

Reseeded here on the 1st oct and its doing nicely, went with a bit more than a bag of seed/acre.
Didnt get to spray it though. :-(

jersey101

opt_IMG_20131228_120142.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/9h7n.jpg
First reseed we did here 10 yes ago. Looking a bit tired now. Low p and k might be doing that though

opt_IMG_20131228_121327.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/61no.jpg
Reseed we did last April. Didn't get grazed till July. Grazed first week of march

td5man

The field

just do it

td5man wrote: »

The field

I'd nearly eat it myself:)

Greengrass1

Lads who are eye balling grass. How do you do it in the spring? When the DM is more than it would be in the summer.
A paddock with 1200 on it now surley wouldn't be the same as a paddock with 1200 on it in the summer?

Greengrass1

Measured farm today. Farm cover at 680

delaval

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Measured farm today. Farm cover at 680

What was your closing cover?

Greengrass1

delaval wrote: »

What was your closing cover?

Ehhhhh. First year measuring del.
Didn't bother last year because it was too hard to change the way things were being done. Will do it as best as I can from the start and keep going like that

Greengrass1

https://imageshack.us/a/img33/1714/zsde.jpg
Set up for the morning

Timmaay

Was out in a paddock which was reseeded 2yrs ago today, 1st time since I did a grass measure back in early feb. Was a cover of 800 on it then, up to an easy 1300 now! I'd give it a growth rate of over 20kg/day, nothing beats a fresh reseed for growing grass on the shoulder months!

biddy2013

first walk of 2014
afc 670

frazzledhome

Any one have a growth figure? Grass growing well > 20 I'd say?

Anywhere grazed returning very well

Timmaay

Did a grass cover today. Not really great looking yet to be honest. AFC at 580 (down from 650 at turnout 1st week of feb). Growth only 6kg/day over the 6wks. My overall farm SR has rocketed from about 1.8LU last year, to 2.5 this year, due to losing 50acres of rented land. I think I'll have no other choice but have a decent cull of any under preforming ladies, and aim just to scrape over quota next year, as it stands now with my cow number I probably could supply 50k or 100k over quota, but almost zero point doing this for 11c/l, and being under pressure for grass and silage all year.

Anyways, shorter term, I'm sitting at 35% of the farm grazed out. Milkers and some youngstock are out by day and night, I'll probably aim to keep on grazing as per normal, the 2nd rotation will be late as is, last week in April maybe, hopefully we'll get a serious burst of growth before then however!

49801

Bro measured on fri and afc is 625 with growth of 12.1.
Emptied the shed on sat morning. Will bring back in if weather turns against us

biddy2013

afc this time last year here was 140 with a growth figure of 0.5

PatQfarmer

biddy2013 wrote: »

afc this time last year here was 140 with a growth figure of 0.5

True. Looked at 2013 diary over weekend, had to re-house everything on 20th March last year!
AFC currently 650, growth 12.4kg/day over this week.
38% grazed, but low-cover paddocks ahead.
Aiming to complete 1st rotation on 10th April, should get there if conditions remain good.
Have silage, round feeders and a rocky hill if not:)

49801

Just finishing first rotation here.
With silage ground closed only have 10 days ahead. Silage ground is worth 10 days. Afc 442. Growth 34. Demand 800 per day
In for a bumpy ride
Will have to rehouse I think

awaywithyou

49801 wrote: »

Just finishing first rotation here.
With silage ground closed only have 10 days ahead. Silage ground is worth 10 days. Afc 442. Growth 34. Demand 800 per day
In for a bumpy ride
Will have to rehouse I think

Buffer feed starting today....

Timmaay

awaywithyou wrote: »

Buffer feed starting today....

Agreed. Look on the bright side, you have at least gone out, measured the grass and know the extent of your problem. No point putting your head in the sand, it will take twice as to recover if you grazed the whole farm to the sod now. At least this time of the year things can flip so quickly, in 3wks time you could be looking at taking out bales from excess paddocks ha.

kevthegaff

Would ye be as well off grazing the silage ground and putting it back a few weeks??

frazzledhome

49801 wrote: »

Just finishing first rotation here.
With silage ground closed only have 10 days ahead. Silage ground is worth 10 days. Afc 442. Growth 34. Demand 800 per day
In for a bumpy ride
Will have to rehouse I think

Demand 800/day? What's that per ha?

Brown Podzol

49801 wrote: »

Just finishing first rotation here.
With silage ground closed only have 10 days ahead. Silage ground is worth 10 days. Afc 442. Growth 34. Demand 800 per day
In for a bumpy ride
Will have to rehouse I think

It makes no sense to feed silage indoors in order to grow silage outside. It's costing money to make an inferior product. You'd be much better off money wise and cow health and fertility wise to try and buy silage growing or kick out your own harvesting date and graze until growth takes off.

Greengrass1

Brown Podzol wrote: »

It makes no sense to feed silage indoors in order to grow silage outside. It's costing money to make an inferior product. You'd be much better off money wise and cow health and fertility wise to try and buy silage growing or kick out your own harvesting date and graze until growth takes off.

Feck all silage crops for sale around here.
And what I'd I'd only dirt. And tillage lads won't give wholecroo. Just to be awkward

rancher

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Feck all silage crops for sale around here.
And what I'd I'd only dirt. And tillage lads won't give wholecroo. Just to be awkward

I never thought much of making silage for sale, takes too much out of the land unless you're getting the slurry back,
Andy Mc garrigle Dept of Ag said at our CAP meeting that he doesn't consider selling silage as a farm enterprise, so to note that when someone is applying for entitlements for the national reserve.
Selling silage really drains land, the quality goes down hill very quick too

awaywithyou

kevthegaff wrote: »

Would ye be as well off grazing the silage ground and putting it back a few weeks??

Personally, there is no way I would graze silage ground once closed.... I think it's sacrosanct! The lad might only need to feed silage for a day or two and he could be grand again for grass in a couple of days....

frazzledhome

awaywithyou wrote: »

Personally, there is no way I would graze silage ground once closed.... I think it's sacrosanct! The lad might only need to feed silage for a day or two and he could be grand again for grass in a couple of days....

I'd graze silage ground any time it'd be required but only if grazable, if you get me.
I'll only take silage when the grass is in surplus. I do have land locked up that I can't get cows to

kevthegaff

I make the majority of silage away from the farm rented, dont like taking p+k away from this farm

49801

frazzledhome wrote: »

Demand 800/day? What's that per ha?

Demand per Ha is showing as 28.6.
Buffer feeding not ideal as all the stock are 12mth old heifers and the farm is an evening job after work.... They will be going into a field next to the slated shed shortly so we can let them creep in there handy enough for a few days. Hopefully the growth picks up and Mother Nature turns things around.

frazzledhome

Demand 26 Gr 34 and you have 10 days grass. I don't think you're in too much bother.

If I were you I'd continue grazing and if growth slows use a portion of your silage ground. I wouldn't use yet as you may still get under the wire

trixi2011

frazzledhome wrote: »

I'd graze silage ground any time it'd be required but only if grazable, if you get me.
I'll only take silage when the grass is in surplus. I do have land locked up that I can't get cows to

Have had to premow silage paddocks this season on front of the cows when growth has slowed down at the wrong time. Had no decrease in milk if anything it increased. These would have been covers that I def would want to be grazing 3700+