OCTOBER 2018
www.irishfarmersmonthly.com
Management Hints
47
of the grazing area must be grazed by first week of November.
If the area allocated each day doesn't give the cows enough
grass, indicated by post-grazing height, then the farmer must
supplement with meals or, very good quality baled silage.
X
You must graze out well or you will have no tillers next year;
you must not poach damage and you must not graze out too
fast.
X
The last rotation will begin between the 6-15th October
(depending on soil type) and end 15-26th November.
X
Paddocks or fields must be grazed out in rotation. Some
farmers have a habit of dropping down wires and letting
animals graze all over the place. This is wrong, because re-
growths are being eaten and you won't have any grass next
spring. So, you must ensure animals only spend 2-3 days in each
grazing block.
X
Because of great autumn growth we have a lot of high cover
that require great skill to graze out:
·
In many situations, little or no meals and definitely no
silage should be fed, particularly where you are trying
to graze off high covers.
·
Graze animals for 2-4 hour periods, removing animals
when grass has been eaten, otherwise they do too
much walking damage,
·
Don't graze when it is raining as animals spend more
time walking, therefore, more soil compaction.
·
Graze in square blocks, not in long narrow strips, as
less poaching damage is done due to less walking,
·
Graze from back of paddock, so that animals never,
ever, walk over grazed ground. Or use cow walks (3-4
yds wide) to allow cows to back of paddocks.
·
Use several gap entrances to a paddock to minimise
dirtying the grass inside the gap.
·
Avoid having to graze heavy covers, over 2300kg DM/
Ha, because it means animals have to spend too long in
each area of ground, also recovery is slower, and there
will be more decayed grass in the sward.
·
These are simple, low cost suggestions but for some
reason some farmers don't practice them.
Heifer targets drive management
Breeding stock weights and condition scores are the vital chores
this month. The following are the target weights for October for
the various mature weights of the breed:
Table2: Target weights (kg) for Replacement Weanling and In-calf Heifers
in October.
Maintenance
Sun-index EBI
Mature Weight
Weanling Wt.
In-calf Heifer
10
580
215
445
20
550
205
425
30
520
200
420
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