Grass getting tight

farmerjj

Anyone else running low on grass due to the dry weather:(, heard a few lads were feeding silage, hopefully things will pick up now due to the rain yesterday.

Damo810

Too much grass here, not that it's a problem

Muckit

Yes grass is tight on a lot of farms due to the lack of rain. More pronounced on heavily stocked free draining land with sandy soil.

sea12

Muckit wrote: »

Yes grass is tight on a lot of farms due to the lack of rain. More pronounced on heavily stocked free draining land with sandy soil.

Loads of grass here. The rain last weekend has it jumping out if the ground.
Not complains though

Muckit

Loads here too. All depends on your circumstances and location. I was down in Cork for a few days. Great land but a lot of dairy cows licking the clay or had their heads in ring feeders. A different world.

But give it another few weeks and we could be pulling or feet out of the muck and down South could be laughing.

It's a funny old country!

mahoney_j

Grass flying here knocked a few surplus paddocks today to stop it getting too strong ahead of cows.never seen. Year like it for growing and utilising grass

ferger1

farmerjj wrote: »

Anyone else running low on grass due to the dry weather:(, heard a few lads were feeding silage, hopefully things will pick up now due to the rain yesterday.

Under pressure down here in the south, started feeding silage, feck all rain here over the month of july, grass just stalled

Timmaay

A SR of just 2.5 and buying in silage has saved my bacon for the past 2 months. Grass quality is the biggest problem with a large enough loss in yields from cows grazing 6/7week old aftergrass. I don't know how much of a moisture deficit is in the soil but at a guess we'd need 3inches of steady rain over afew days.

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

Grass flying here knocked a few surplus paddocks today to stop it getting too strong ahead of cows.never seen. Year like it for growing and utilising grass

Things starting to move after rain. Still feeding silage and hulls, should be ok after weekend.

What's your SR. I'd imaging you've got no more rain than us. 10 tonne grown to date

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

Things starting to move after rain. Still feeding silage and hulls, should be ok after weekend.

What's your SR. I'd imaging you've got no more rain than us. 10 tonne grown to date

2.5 ,13 acres out for reseeding,we've had rain on and off but not the hot sunny weather you had we got reall humid heavy weather savage rain here last sat

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

2.5 ,13 acres out for reseeding,we've had rain on and off but not the hot sunny weather you had we got reall humid heavy weather savage rain here last sat

I was wondering, 2.5 very comfortable when so dry.

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

I was wondering, 2.5 very comfortable when so dry.

Arm chair ride this year ,grass more or less excellent all summer and a stack of very high dmd and dm wraps.could of stocked here at 4 and still been comfortable .next year,no quota cantvwIt !

mf240

My reclaimed bog is inundated with grass . I am busy conserving extra bales for the next crap year that comes. Mf240 is to bales, as a squirrel is to nuts!!

Greengrass1

Always seem to have enough grass for ten days ahead. Soil still v dry though.. Going to blanket spread whole farm with pasture sward tomorrow

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

Arm chair ride this year ,grass more or less excellent all summer and a stack of very high dmd and dm wraps.could of stocked here at 4 and still been comfortable .next year,no quota cantvwIt !

Great year, no doubt. Would you manage 4 at the moment?

mf240

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Always seem to have enough grass for ten days ahead. Soil still v dry though.. Going to blanket spread whole farm with pasture sward tomorrow

How much per acre? And will that be it for this year or will ya go again in sept.

seany1994

Good year for grass here in limerick. Been topping mad! Topped a field of rushes last month .never seen her so green! Seen fields down by rathkeale and there burnt ! Eat sleep top repeat!

Greengrass1

mf240 wrote: »

How much per acre? And will that be it for this year or will ya go again in sept.

Just a bag. Topping up last of silage with 55 units.
Hopefully go again in September.
Never spread in September before here

frazzledhome

Any prices on Leafi boost?

Damo810

seany1994 wrote: »

Good year for grass here in limerick. Been topping mad! Topped a field of rushes last month .never seen her so green! Seen fields down by rathkeale and there burnt ! Eat sleep top repeat!

Never seen a worse year for rushes in the west, topped once this year and that was it, Not one in sight at the moment!

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

Great year, no doubt. Would you manage 4 at the moment?

Yep demand would then be 65 ish and still growing 80 odd .so still a surplus.reckon I'd have to introduce a buffer by mid to late sept though

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

Yep demand would then be 65 ish and still growing 80 odd .so still a surplus.reckon I'd have to introduce a buffer by mid to late sept though

What was your lowest growth this year mid season? We hit 49-32-25 for 3 consecutive weeks. One guy near me did "9" last week while another in our group did 90. Some difference in 20 miles

_Brian

Plenty here.
Long dry spells is when heavy land comes into it's own, grass growth has been great.

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

What was your lowest growth this year mid season? We hit 49-32-25 for 3 consecutive weeks. One guy near me did "9" last week while another in our group did 90. Some difference in 20 miles

Since late may one week down at 55 up to a high of 115,average prob somewhere in mid 80s.reseeding and early loading of farm with n p k combined with sulphur through April and May paying dividends .oh and an excelkent summer weather wise!

whitebriar

Timmaay wrote: »

A SR of just 2.5 and buying in silage has saved my bacon for the past 2 months. Grass quality is the biggest problem with a large enough loss in yields from cows grazing 6/7week old aftergrass. I don't know how much of a moisture deficit is in the soil but at a guess we'd need 3inches of steady rain over afew days.

About that.
Did you get Tuesdays rain,that made a major difference down our way,it was showers but dumped over an inch.

castletrader

Anybody buy nitrogen lately .Got a quote of 305 collected. How much is this leifi boost fert and is it any better than nitrogen?Thanks

arctic8dave

castletrader wrote: »

Anybody buy nitrogen lately .Got a quote of 305 collected. How much is this leifi boost fert and is it any better than nitrogen?Thanks

N is round 315 here. Leifi boost (is this not 19-0-15 if im not mistaken) is 400
Grass flying round here been very lucky with showers regularly in last few weeks

visatorro

castletrader wrote: »

Anybody buy nitrogen lately .Got a quote of 305 collected. How much is this leifi boost fert and is it any better than nitrogen?Thanks

paid 320 last week for can.
no price on leafi stuff.

Farmer Pudsey

I think lads with older grass on dryer ground are under pressure. I have a dry farm but most is reseeded over last 6-8 years. No issue with growth but tend to let grass covers to get a small bit heavier than I should. But on a dry farm this is not a bad idea in a dry year.

Greengrass1

Grass flying here

frazzledhome

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Grass flying here

Finally moving here. Silage out from tomorrow, glad I went in hard and early

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

Finally moving here. Silage out from tomorrow, glad I went in hard and early

Id say I will be late enough building my covers here for autumn grazing. Be September before I get to graze silage ground and going reseeding more next week.
All go

Brown Podzol

frazzledhome wrote: »

Finally moving here. Silage out from tomorrow, glad I went in hard and early

Dead in the water here. 3.6 lu/ha and only 20 mils since start of July. 3.5 kg meal and 5 kg silage. Slowed down to 33 days and pray for rain.

freedominacup

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Dead in the water here. 3.6 lu/ha and only 20 mils since start of July. 3.5 kg meal and 5 kg silage. Slowed down to 33 days and pray for rain.

In the balance here. We've gotten a bit of rain over the past week. Cut back to 5kg of silage now don't want to get caught with grass getting too far ahead. Not sure yet if we've enough rain to really get things motoring. Had to abandon fencing new roadway just couldn't drive stakes today ground that hard still. Replaced a few rotted strainers by driving the replacement down through the rotten base of the old one.

Bleating Lamb

freedominacup wrote: »

In the balance here. We've gotten a bit of rain over the past week. Cut back to 5kg of silage now don't want to get caught with grass getting too far ahead. Not sure yet if we've enough rain to really get things motoring. Had to abandon fencing new roadway just couldn't drive stakes today ground that hard still. Replaced a few rotted strainers by driving the replacement down through the rotten base of the old one.

Jaysus those strainers must have been well rotted!

Bleating Lamb

Would have to say here in North West on any heavy soils it has and continues to be an exceptional grass growing year,biggest prob has been using it well and not letting it get too strong,esp for sheep at times, have had savage heavy rain showers in last ten days or so.....result .....wet land getting wet:(
Would be best grass year in ten years at least.

freedominacup

I think we're heading back into drought here again. Ground rock hard and growth slowing having never really got going again. Contractor dding grass seed into wholecrop stubbles and dust rising. Just heading out with ring feeders and bales for the first time in a week.

Charliebull

freedominacup wrote: »

I think we're heading back into drought here again. Ground rock hard and growth slowing having never really got going again. Contractor dding grass seed into wholecrop stubbles and dust rising. Just heading out with ring feeders and bales for the first time in a week.

really:eek:, had heavy showers here all week, actually ground is starting to get a bit wet but grass growth really slowed down as temps are well down

Timmaay

freedominacup wrote: »

I think we're heading back into drought here again. Ground rock hard and growth slowing having never really got going again. Contractor dding grass seed into wholecrop stubbles and dust rising. Just heading out with ring feeders and bales for the first time in a week.

We've been ok, some fields drying up again but we got a decent surplus built up, so even if growth did slowdown I doubt if I'd need to hold back the cows, I'd be happy enough to build up the autumn wedge abit later if needs be. Decent bit of N going out at the minute still also.

Greengrass1

Timmaay wrote: »

We've been ok, some fields drying up again but we got a decent surplus built up, so even if growth did slowdown I doubt if I'd need to hold back the cows, I'd be happy enough to build up the autumn wedge abit later if needs be. Decent bit of N going out at the minute still also.

Father reluctant to buy any more here :eek:

Brown Podzol

Still in trouble here. Only 25mils since start of July. Stocked at 3.6 and feeding 2.7kg meal and bales. Only growing 30 kg but rain forecast for the weekend. Still we're producing over 1.9 kg milk solids so the bales are doing what they are supposed to do. Thinking back, this week two years ago we couldn't get another animal into the sheds. We were getting more rain per day during July/August 2012 than we have received since the start of July this year. I'll take this year.

Brown Podzol

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Father reluctant to buy any more here :eek:

If your putting out O's, the N in 10 10 20 is almost free when you compare the price against 0 10 20.

Greengrass1

Brown Podzol wrote: »

If your putting out O's, the N in 10 10 20 is almost free when you compare the price against 10 10 20.

Have my allowance of p spread this yr. Looking at trying to buy can.
What are lads paying

cute geoge

€295 - Russian can
€315- gouldings can cash

milkprofit

cute geoge wrote: »

€295 - Russian can
€315- gouldings can cash

send that Russian stuff back

Greengrass1

cute geoge wrote: »

€295 - Russian can
€315- gouldings can cash

What's the difference?
Haven't bought any can this yr at all

cute geoge

Russian can is finer and speader need adjustment
Goulding can is actually €310

ellewood

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Have my allowance of p spread this yr. Looking at trying to buy can.
What are lads paying

E305.00 last week Gambia pay on day

Greengrass1

cute geoge wrote: »

Russian can is finer and speader need adjustment
Goulding can is actually €310

Prilled you mean

cute geoge

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Prilled you mean

Not that fine , just small grains compared to ifi can

blackdog1

I never use the russian stuff. Used to find if it got any bit of rain on it in the machine it would turn to mush and be a nightmare to spread. My spreader has no lid on it btw.