All things being equal, it has been a fairly difficult first rotation on both dairy and drystock farms in most parts of the country.

But with the weather starting to come good, it is important we move forward on the right footing – so starting the second rotation in the right manner is going to be critical. In essence, we want to avoid running out of grass, but also avoid grazing too strong of covers.

The key is to measure your grass covers. You need to be aiming for a cover of 1,200kg to 1,400kg DM/ha back on the first paddocks grazed to start the second round. In terms of the range, 1,200kg DM/ha is for farms stocked at less than 3LU/ha while 1,400kg DM/ha is for farms stocked greater than 3.5LU/ha.

If you managed to get some substantial grazing in in early February, its likely there is now close to 1,000kg DM/ha of grass back on your first paddocks grazed. Considering the average growth rate this week was 25kg DM/ha/day we can safely predict a growth rate of around 35kg DM/ha/day for the coming week. If that is the case, there should be 1,245kg DM/ha back on those first paddocks grazed on 9 April.

Budget

The important thing now is to budget out the last of your grass until then. If you have plenty of grass left to graze in the first rotation, keep grazing until you have this 1,200-1,400kg DM/ha on first paddock, stop, and start your second rotation straight away. Any paddock not grazed in the first rotation can be taken out as surplus bales. If you are going to struggle to get the week out of what’s left in the first rotation budget out what grass is left and allocate some silage or concentrates for the week.

Brendan Ryan

Brendan Ryan.

Pallaskenry Ag College

After a slow start, we are going well on the drystock block with 60% of ground grazed. We are now planning to start the second rotation on 12 April. To kick-on growth, we applied 36 units/ac of N last week. This was the second application after going with slurry on 22% of ground and 23 units/ac of N on the rest in late January. Next week we will go with another 30 units/ac of N on the grazing block. The plan is to close up the silage ground around 7 April to target a 25 May cutting date. Calving started on 19 February and we have 28 out of 32 calved. Cows are being offered Hi-Mag lick buckets at grass. Elsewhere, over 60 of our 65 ewes have lambed too.

Iarlaith Collins

Iarlaith Collins.

Newford Herd

We have 87 cows and calves out now, split into three groups to help manage the grass. Cows are just being offered Hi-Mag lick buckets. All 2019-born yearlings were turned out between 22 and 24 March. Bullocks weighed 437kg and heifers weighed 411kg at turnout, meaning they are 60kg ahead of the same time last year. They are currently grazing silage ground and will stay there until it’s closed on 10 April. Silage ground will get 2,000-2,500gal/ac of slurry and two bags/ac of protected urea (36% N and 7% sulphur). On the grazing block, we went with 0.5-0.75 bags/ac (23-34 units N) of urea on ground that had been spread in February. Ground that hadn’t been spread got one bag/ac (46 units N) of urea.

Ger McSweeney

Ger McSweeney.

Millstreet, Co Cork

I’m getting through my spring planner well now after a difficult start. I have 50% of my ground grazed, though I’m not in a huge hurry to get through the remaining 50% because regrowths are still quite slow. To date, I have 21 yearling heifers out and 20 cows and calves out. I’m holding back cows and calves in the shed until growth picks up. All grazing ground has already received 0.5 bags/ac of urea (23 units N) and I’m now going with another 30 units/ac to top it up. Silage ground has been closed for a week at this stage and one-third of it was grazed before closing. My cows are finished calving and indeed, I have already started breeding again as I want to calve my maiden heifers in early January next year.