They're off.
Left off 15 heifers yesterday. They weight from 365 to 565. Heaviest a Sim, lightest an Frx. They have been gaining about 0.5kgs per day inside on silage and minerals. They went out to a scarfice paddock last Tuesday and ate two bales to yesterday when I left them off to grass. Hope to start feeding them mid April and send them off late May early June. 5 FRx, 2Fr,4HEx, 2AAx, a Chx and a SIx
Yeah that's the question, would it be worth leaving it a few weeks to bulk up a bit and hope for a later second cut or cut the usual time and have a smaller harvest but higher quality. Not really sure what I'd do in that position, but probably would leave it bulk up a bit but I'm not cutting that early anyway so it wouldn't affect me.
Will lads have to cut early if the grass starts to stress?
have noticed the wet spots starting to dry
Soil moisture defecits heading for between 25 and 40 ml on most soils by the end of this week, growth rates will be impacted if they haven't begun already. It's a very awkward time of year for it to happen too coming into the first cut silage season for many.
If you let them in the gate & have a narrow strip fenced across to the far ditch & a bit of meal this can be great way to keep cattle from going mad altogether in a big field if this is practical,after a few minutes open up the srip considerably for overnight & take it down altogether in the morning,I'd say you are right about the cow they would probably torment her,I would try & turnout new arrivals with a few quiet residents.
There hand reared stock from last year there not wild there just hyper is a better word for them but I don't think they ever seen a fence before and that's where the issue is so not sure how long they will take to understand how it works but Id say after today they will become fast learners. I was thinking of letting a cow out with them but not sure that be a good thing or they just spend the whole time chasing her around trying to ride her
I bought some continental stores this spring who when let out went completely crazy despite our usual quiet handling & escaped an extremely well fenced field causing me unbelievable stress in retrieving the mad whooers,very strange as they were very quiet in the shed prior to being turned out,I resold them in a different mart a few days later & got on very well price wise,turn them out with a few quite lads & have a shake of meal in a trough if they are still acting the fool get rid of them,regarding there castration I have no idea why anyone would castrate a store as this should be done no later than 7 months.
Bought a few store bullocks and let them out to grass the f*ckers went mad running into fences running through fences eventually they stopped running through the fences but kept running up to it and getting a stink the poor fuckers must have took a shook 10times or more each they started to settle a little in the evening but there hyper I think these have never being out to grass ever before there yearlings and id say they where kept in all year round. anyone come across this before? I have them in a fairly bare field but its surrounded with a 8-10k volt fence I didn't want to open the gate to let them into fresh grass until they settle.
Also they have being squeezed but some of them have big bags how long can they take to go down look to be done maybe 6weeks some have done down.
well I will take 18 over most of the years since, I had very little grass but my cattle never killed out aswell, there used to be dust in my face throwing meal into the troughs, compared to a foot of muck the past few years
2018 was very similar, and we all know what followed, I reckon we are in for a dry
I have never seen growth so good the past few days, I spread manure Wednesday and you can’t see the tracks now, the grass grew that amount
Slurry put out in January fertiliser in February/ March these lads are only baling now because they see or hear someone else doing it they'll only get max 5 bales per acre but that doesn't matter to these lads
I graze all silage ground in march close for silage and bale at earliest end of May or first week of June and always have minimum 10 fusion bales per acre and up to 15 bales per acre and never lower than mid 70 dmd and have tested silage made in July and have got almost 80 dmd and 30 dm
Saw a few at it in Meath today. Would have been spread with fert in early March. If I hadn’t grazed my own it wouldn’t be far off cutting atm. Though I grazed it and will cut towards the end of the month.
I doubt it, I’ve fields that would do 4-6 bales at the moment that were cleared off not long back. It was a slow start but it’s bursting on now. Mine however won’t have used up the nitrogen for another week or two.
I’d doubt it was first cut silage. Most likely ground that wasn’t grazed over the winter and got no fertiliser yet. It would get slurry and fertiliser now after cutting.
Silage. I think a lot of this madness is just to be boasting about how early they can cut silage
Personally I think there is a lot of craziness going on about getting high DMD. You are only hitting peak grass growing period at present. Unless you dud not graze off silage ground in March there will be virtually nothing in the meadows.
I love to be cutting now I be getting very high DM. However it woukd be only 3-5 bales per acre if very dry. Silage is an e pensive crop to grow. There is about a fortnight at least of N left in my crops. I cut with 5-10 days left in May, 25th of May is my ideal date.
Last year crop tested 65-75 DMD between 1st and second, I got it tested by two different entities free. DM on most of it was 40++. Stores did over 0.5kgs per day. According to the textbook it's all wrong.
If you cut now you would want to be doing a 3 cut system. That is expensive sh!te and September silage will tend to be very low DM. Maybe if you have a lot if your own machinery and plenty of time on your hands as well as a liking for burning diesel, you could go ahead. I still k at what seems to work for me
Were they grazing paddocks gone strong or the actual silage?
This image will tell you about more, at least you'll be able to figure out your P and K indexs from this chart
I saw a couple of bailers in fields this morning starting baling which I think is madness just as grass is growing well your crop will bulk up massive in the next 3 weeks, I cannot figure out why you'd cut and bale soft wet grass like grass was this morning and then go out with expensive fertiliser next week to try and grow more grass when it should be left growing for another couple of weeks
Used to cut around June bank holiday changed to midddle or third week of May for a couple of years. Changed back to early June again as I thought it sweeter and Golden in colour. Just my own opinion......
left it down for 2days and stuff was great cattle went mad for it think it was 73 and 30dm. The silage you made at 79%dmd would you even need to supplement with that silage id imagine you would get 0.7-0.8kg daily gain
I cut too early last year when there was a good spell for a couple of days and I won’t be doing it again. I’d silage going black not that long after opening and just wasn’t happy with it. 72dmd or above and reasonably dry and I’m happy enough here . Trying to get 80dmd bales of soft grass for beef or sucklers is not required and doesn’t suit the same as a dairy cow.
Silage will be black if the nitrogen hasn’t been used up. A good wilt in the sun will sort it out if nitrogen not fully used up. All depends what you are feeding it to. If stores and weanlings it’s as important to have it dry as have the dmd high. Had 72 dmd for first cut last year and 79 for second cut. They ate it all up the same and complained about none of it. All the good silage in the world won’t make up for not getting cattle out early in the spring.
what is the sweet spot in terms of silage quality If silage was cut now in the next week I would expect dmd to be at 80% but if its that high I was told I would have to feed straw with it as there would be no fibre in it and it will run through the cattle. Would 75% to 78% dmd be the best silage overall? trying to cut down on feeding meal feeding levels over the winter.
According to farm theroy id doesn't matter if there is some nitrogen in the grass he just cuts when it suits. Last year I done my second cut a bit early as the weather was good I didn't wait the correct amount of weeks and stuff was perfect no issues.
Hey, I tested my silage fields on Tuesday for sugars and nitrates.
One field didn't get grazed fully in spring and had nitrate level of 332mg/l.
Ideally it should be below 100mg/l.
With the scorching weather at the moment and good outlook for the next 10 days, will it drop much?
Aiming to cut the 15th, will probably test again to be sure it's safe.
Same here at last.
think we hit magic day here. Grass jumping out of the ground. gone from very tight and spreading fertiliser last week to grass jumping out of the ground this week
spread away. Bits of rain falling over the next week. Ideal time with the growth taking off.
