The green green grass of home

Ireland is known for the scenic green landscape that produces some of the finest beef and milk worldwide. Last week brought a sea of green over the country to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. While the waves of green were seen flowing through the streets, all I could think about was the importance of growing more green grass at home.

Over recent weeks I have been measuring grass on the farm. The majority of top producing dairy farms and a minority of beef farms carry out this recording on a regular basis. The trustworthy plate metre measures the height of the grass. The kilograms of dry matter (kg DM) can then be predicted using some simple calculations. This will be the first year of using this technique to measure grass on our farm. Of course, my father and I can tell you which paddocks are best and worst performing. As a matter of interest, I think we would actually agree on that. Anybody working with a family member on a farm can relate to that.

We first measured grass at the end of January, the same day we took soil samples. As we didn’t apply any slurry at the back end of last year our covers were fairly light but we didn’t expect any more. Our first measurement was to give us a start point for the year to come. Last weekend was our most recent measure. From the end of January till the middle of March, our farm produced on average 2kg DM/ha/day. Basically there was minimal, if any growth. During peak growth some areas in Ireland can produce 70+kg DM/ha/day, so 2kg DM/ha/day doesn’t really compare.

Met Éireann recorded soil temperatures of 4.4°C for Mullingar in the month of February. Our minimal growth reflects this temperature, as grass needs soil temperatures of 5°C + for growth. While I measured paddocks, dad was moving some of the lighter bulls to fresh grass that had previously been measured. I measured the area they had finished grazing to see if the measurement matched up with our target residual. Thankfully the recorded post grazing height reflected what was obvious to the eye and our target of 3.5-4cm post grazing sward height was achieved.

With the optimal weather conditions over the weekend we took the opportunity to turn heifers out to grass. These heifers were allocated the silage ground. All going to plan, the heifers will give these paddocks a good trim to allow for tillering and further growth. Following grazing these paddocks will receive slurry and chemical fertiliser and be closed up to produce excellent quality grass. The end result will be excellent silage. Already preparing for next winter!