Latest news with #Clovermax
Irish Examiner
08-07-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
From rain to results: Managing grass and breeding in Bandon
Cows are milking around 23L and 4.12% fat and 3.6% protein as of June 24, 2025, and they are currently on 3kg of 14% concentrate per day. I used all artificial insemination this year. I did not use any stock bull. We will finish our breeding around July 20. Repeats have quietened down. We got a good few repeats around week six of breeding, everything has settled down since then. There is bull running with the heifers at the moment. These heifers were also synchronised. I have not scanned anything yet. I walked the farm on Wednesday. I have one paddock at 1,500kg DM/ha and one paddock at 1,650kg DM/ha. I am going to skip these two paddocks in the hope that I can bale them next week. My cover per livestock unit is at 150. This is a bit low so if I run tight in grass, I will be able to go back and graze my two heaviest paddocks instead of baling them. This is not ideal, but it may be my only option if I do run tight on grass. With the rain at the end of June, I am confident that growth rates will be high for the next few days and my cover per livestock unit will increase. My demand at the moment is 62kg DM/ha/day and growth is at 70kg DM/ha/day. To date, I have not done any pre-mowing or topping of paddocks. As I said, I took out five paddocks for first-cut silage, I like to take out paddocks for bales when there is a surplus of grass on farm. Sometimes this can lead to me being tight on grass for a few days, but I find I have better quality of grass for the cows to graze compared to pre-mowing or topping. Our re-seeds are in six weeks now. They are coming up to the right stage now for spraying. They had excellent germination, and I top-dressed them with 25 units of nitrogen about a week ago. I hope to spray these fields as soon as possible, once the weather permits. I will be spraying these fields with Clovermax to protect the red clover in the swards. I signed up to the Farming for Water EIP through my Carbery ASSAP advisor. I am signed up to complete a nitrogen surplus plan and I will get my slurry tested. I am applying for a nitrates derogation. All drains and rivers are fenced back 1.5 metres to keep cows and run-off away from watercourses. I have all my water troughs kept over 20 metres away from water courses. All gutters and run-off in the yard is kept to a minimum to try and keep clean water and dirty water separate. I'm hoping to get along to Carbery's Milk Quality and Sustainability farm walk on Glenn Forde's farm on Friday, July 25. Dermot and Linda Walsh are farming in Lislevane, Bandon, with their children Tadgh, Aoife, Maebh, and Eoin. They milk 84 cows and supply Barryroe Co-op. Read More Dermot's planning ahead to make best use of nutrient applications
Irish Examiner
09-06-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Dermot's planning ahead to make best use of nutrient applications
Things are going well at the moment. Silage is cut. We are in week five of breeding. There are a few repeats, but there is nothing too concerning. One cow has not gone through bulling yet, she has been treated twice by a vet, so I have made the decision to get rid of this cow. We had to feed silage for a week. They were eating about 3kg/DM per day of silage at milking time. This allowed me to hold the rotation. We took out this silage from their diet on June 1. The silage we fed was bales that we had baled earlier in the year. I walked the farm on June 4. My farm cover is 689kg DM/ha. Cover per LU is at 159kg/DM. I have a good few paddocks of similar covers of about 1,000-1,200, which I hope to graze soon. This is why I am not too worried about being tight on grass. These few paddocks are after grass from fields that were cut for bales earlier in the year. I am keeping the cows on 4kg of ration in the parlour for now to try and stretch the grass for a few days. Hopefully, if growth picks up a bit, I might be able to drop the ration to 3kg. I am following the cows with about 20-22 units of 38% nitrogen and 7% sulphur. I am hoping to use around a unit a day. We cut our first-cut silage on May 21. We cut 21 acres of silage. I can graze my whole farm, which meant I grazed my silage ground back in the spring. I closed my silage ground around the first week of April. We got slurry put out on all the silage ground last week. It got around 2,500 gallons to the acre with the trailing shoe. Any of the silage ground that was cut for first-cut and will be cut again for second-cut will get a bag and a half of 38% nitrogen and 7% sulphur (NBPT-protected urea and Sulphur). I will wait about 10 days after spreading slurry before I will spread the fertiliser. I hope to spread the fertiliser this coming weekend if weather conditions are suitable. This would mean I will have around 75-80 units of nitrogen for my second cut silage For the fields that were cut already and will not be cut again, they also received 2,500 gallons of slurry. These fields will get about three-quarters of a bag of 38% nitrogen and 7% sulphur (NBPT-protected urea and sulphur). I reseeded a few paddocks on May 13. In the next week or so, I hope to top dress them with around 30 units of chemical nitrogen. I set one paddock with an intensive grazing mix from Barryroe Co-op. The other paddocks have been reseeded with red clover silage mix. I will spray Clovermax on my reseeds to protect the clover. Dermot and Linda Walsh are farming in Lislevane, Bandon, with their children Tadgh, Aoife, Maebh, and Eoin. They milk 84 cows and supply Barryroe Co-op. Read More Dry spring delivers quality silage but slows grass growth in Youghal
