The Grass Measuring Thread

whelan2

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Growth is good here atm but could really do with a drop of moisture to kick it on again.

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

alps

Timmaay wrote: »

Anyone else's growth gone to sh1t with all this lovely weather and a lack of ehhh hmmm moisture...

Just by looking we would be concerned as there is a stressed look about paddocks, but plate meter has it at 86 for the past week....so no point using it if we can't go by it...driving on..

Mooooo

Silage in, drop of rain now would be mighty. Have to top after paddocks, forcing cows to graze the stemmy stuff has an immediate hit on yield. Aftergrass will be delayed from silage field also but will have 4 or 5 days worth of aftergrass in next round hopefully from strong paddocks

freedominacup

We put calves into re seeding today. Sown second of May. Only ready for calves now. We re sited a water trough when they were in and I sent the second lad down to clean it out when the cows were started. He was taking a bit longer than expected and I went out to see if he was ok. I could see he was after getting the jeep slightly jammed up. I couldn't get down to him for a while and when I got there he had unfcuked himself. He was hoarse and in a ball of sweat and he was definitely after using all of his words but no damage. You can't teach lessons like that they have to be learned, usually the hard way.

Timmaay

Buffer feeding starting tonight to slow down the rotation. We need rain...

Keepgrowing

Lads and lassies, just a heads up.

The Irish Grassland Dairy Summer Tour is next Tuesday 25 July. It hosted on 2 farms one in KK and the other across the border in Cw.

The reason I'm posting is because the focus is on leasing land for dairying. One guy is 100% leased and the other at 50%. The striking thing is how cash hungry these fast growing business can be.

It may interest a few here but beware it's almost fully booked so you'd need to get cracking if considering attending.

ted_182

7 ton grow to date from 166 units of n, good , bad, any thoughts? Ive made an effort this year to try and reduce n spread but is it false economy, mp SR is 2.96 winter fodder is harvested on outside block

Timmaay

Measured GR of only 30 for the last 2wks, demand 43, but the cover/LU has stayed up around 220 lol, so no bales needed. I'm finding cows are moving alot slower through covers that I had put say 1100 on, does anyone else find that during very dry weather when the grass appears to be only say a cover of 1100 its actually 1500? Very welcome few showery days here, should tip things along very nicely.

charolais0153

Timmaay wrote: »

Measured GR of only 30 for the last 2wks, demand 43, but the cover/LU has stayed up around 220 lol, so no bales needed. I'm finding cows are moving alot slower through covers that I had put say 1100 on, does anyone else find that during very dry weather when the grass appears to be only say a cover of 1100 its actually 1500? Very welcome few showery days here, should tip things along very nicely.

Dry matter is much higher in drought

charolais0153

Started off great last year but pretty much stopped at may. Try and get a full year this year though.

Measured today AFC is 620. Few fields drier than i thought so maybe some fertiliser will be put out

K.G.

I notice nobody has started "grasswatch 2018" or did i miss it 😄

alps

K.G. wrote: »

I notice nobody has started "grasswatch 2018" or did i miss it ��

Movie didn't start yet...

Buford T. Justice XIX

I think I'll change the thread title to The Grass Measuring Thread so we will have all the info in one thread and can continue to use it.

All we need now is grass growth to measure:p

Mooooo

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I think I'll change the thread title to The Grass Measuring Thread so we will have all the info in one thread and can continue to use it.

All we need now is grass growth to measure:p

What's the dm when it's submerged:(

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

What's the dm when it's submerged:(

-0% I imagine with poor prospects of improving in the short term.

alps

And were off......REEEEEEGROOOWTH...

einn32

I used to go by %DM when grass measuring but this year I've changed to using height of grass instead of weight. It's probably not as accurate but it's speedy. The one thing I'm finding hard is the Kg of DM/ CM of height. I can't find a guide to what figure to use. Any advice?

yewtree

einn32 wrote: »

I used to go by %DM when grass measuring but this year I've changed to using height of grass instead of weight. It's probably not as accurate but it's speedy. The one thing I'm finding hard is the Kg of DM/ CM of height. I can't find a guide to what figure to use. Any advice?

its 250 kg dm in 1 cm, more in dense sheep grazed swards.

Mooooo

Walked farm all ground still wet. Apologies no figures. Grass grazed coming back well enough. Grass grazed late last year with weanlings coming on as well. Got slurry + bag of urea. Proper wet ground got no fert or slurry so is just yellow but can't get into it. If weather picks up soon I can see a scenario here where in the next two weeks where I'll be baling ground and feeding silage the same day just due to the area coming in with the same cover and other parts still drying out

JOAT

Anyone know how I’d go about getting herbage analysis done on grass? And what’s involved?

Say my name

JOAT wrote: »

Anyone know how I’d go about getting herbage analysis done on grass? And what’s involved?

Not sure what part of the country you're in but IAS bagnelstown do tissue testing.
Yara do it as well I think?

I've never got it done myself so not much help otherwise.

Mooooo

I think it has to be done soon after sample is taken from field. Best give one if the labs a shout

charolais0153

Growth 66.
Demand 61.
Magic day!...savage growth. Soon be cutting silage at this rate

cacs

charolais0153 wrote: »

Growth 66.
Demand 61.
Magic day!...savage growth. Soon be cutting silage at this rate

You wouldn’t want to be around mayo I seen warmer days in January. I think the grass went back into the ground today

charolais0153

cathal irwin wrote: »

You wouldn’t want to be around mayo I seen warmer days in January. I think the grass went back into the ground today

Really? Im in south mayo! In a shirt all day. Raining now though

Signpost

After the thunder, torrential rain and hailstone this morning I went for a walk with the dog to clear the head. Covers are growing well but no hope of getting into my wetter ground for at least 2 more weeks. What kind of quality would be bales be if cutting off grass growing since last November? I imagine by mid May I should have 2500 / 3000 covers in that ground so be worthless for feeding but would be of some benefit if I could get it back into the rotation in a nice quality.

Keepgrowing

Signpost wrote: »

After the thunder, torrential rain and hailstone this morning I went for a walk with the dog to clear the head. Covers are growing well but no hope of getting into my wetter ground for at least 2 more weeks. What kind of quality would be bales be if cutting off grass growing since last November? I imagine by mid May I should have 2500 / 3000 covers in that ground so be worthless for feeding but would be of some benefit if I could get it back into the rotation in a nice quality.

Same boat here with 20 acres that was reclaimed last Sept. Never got to spray or graze it. I've decided to mow it when ground conditions allow. Feck all else we can do. If cover doesn't get too heavy it shoild make good bales but with the weather we're having it could be dry ow silage yet. Time will tell

Mf310

Anyone on here have the grasshopper grass measuring unit .... currently just cutting and weighing going to buy a platemeter now though ... came across grasshopper seems right handy the way you can upload everything to pasturebase straight away .... also if i did go for the grasshopper i could do a bit of grass measuring on the side for other lads as it would make it very easy just want to see what anyone with one thinks of it

Keepgrowing

Mf310 wrote: »

Anyone on here have the grasshopper grass measuring unit .... currently just cutting and weighing going to buy a platemeter now though ... came across grasshopper seems right handy the way you can upload everything to pasturebase straight away .... also if i did go for the grasshopper i could do a bit of grass measuring on the side for other lads as it would make it very easy just want to see what anyone with one thinks of it

What will a plate meter tell you that cut and weigh won't?

Plate meters not accurate in high covers

Plate meters very accurate if measuring residuals but so are cows.

mahoney_j

Mf310 wrote: »

Anyone on here have the grasshopper grass measuring unit .... currently just cutting and weighing going to buy a platemeter now though ... came across grasshopper seems right handy the way you can upload everything to pasturebase straight away .... also if i did go for the grasshopper i could do a bit of grass measuring on the side for other lads as it would make it very easy just want to see what anyone with one thinks of it

Tried in vain to buy one but it seems the company marketing it aren’t up to much since ploughing last September I’ve 4 different calls made and 4 different demos organized which amounted to no shows or no call back on there behalf .seem like complete amateurs .if sales is this bad what would product back up be like ???.not cheap either at circa 1500 .on paper it sounds like a serious piece of kit tho .