Dry spring delivers quality silage but slows grass growth in Youghal

Irish Examiner

02-06-2025

Grassland management
No two years are the same, and after a tough and wet start to 2024, 2025 has been the opposite. Looking at the rainfall for our region, we have received 139mm of rain since February until now. For the same period last year, we received 314mm of rainfall. The silage season commenced early, and although yields have been slightly down (seven to eight bales per acre), quality has been excellent. As we have a buffer of over 100 bales of silage in stock, we decided to prioritise quality.
The silage ground has received 2,500 gallons of cattle slurry per acre using a dribble bar. The nitrogen was topped up to 72 units per acre using protected urea. The weather conditions have made making silage a pleasure this year for all involved.
The only downside to the dry weather conditions has been a slowdown in grass growth. At the end of April, we recorded grass growth rates of over 70kg DM/ha/day — this has gradually reduced back to a growth rate of 37kg of DM/ha/day for the last week. The rain that has fallen since the weekend should help increase grass growth rates.
Our farm cover is 1081kg dm/ha, meaning we have 20 days of grass left in front of the cows. Cattle have been very content at grass with the dry conditions so far. The reseeding work has also been carried out, and the newly emerging seedlings will benefit from the more broken weather conditions.
Breeding update
We commenced breeding on May 1, and so far, all cows which will be retained for 2026 have been submitted for AI. We are now seeing the repeats from the first week of breeding, and the non-return rate so far is close to 80%. The bulls used so far are CH4321, CH8571, LM9379, SI1434 and AA9860.
The Angus bull AA9860 was used on maiden heifers. We will continue to breed until the end of the second week of June, which will result in a calving spread of just slightly over six weeks.
Cows that were not identified as cycling using the automated heat detection system were put on a synchronisation protocol to induce heat. We find the conception rates to the synch programme can be slightly lower than natural heats. However, it brings the cow into heat and gives her a chance to be served again within the six-week breeding season.
Bulls and autumn calvers
The first bulls were drafted for slaughter on May 19. The bulls were 15 months of age and killed out at 420kg carcass with a fat score of u-3=. We are very pleased with how the bulls have improved since January.
The autumn calves are all weaned off, and the cows have been moved to the out farm for more marginal type grazing. We find the cows do not become over-conditioned on this type of grazing. We have treated the cows with a pour-on solution to help guard against flies and summer mastitis. These cows will return to the home block for calving in July.
Eamon and his son Donnchadh are farming in Carrigeen, Glendine, Youghal, Co Waterford, and are part of the Teagasc Future Beef programme with the Signpost programme. They run a suckling to beef enterprise split into 60% spring and 40% autumn-calving, consisting of 55 suckler cows. The males are finished as under-16-month bull beef, while the heifers, not retained for breeding, are finished at 18-20 months. Own heifers are kept for breeding.
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