If growing grass was an Olympic sport, we have not come close to posting a personal best this year. The weather has challenged grass growth since March.
With only 10mm of rain falling from mid-June to the last week of July, grass really has got stressed here.
Thankfully we have got 28mm over the last week. We blanket spread the whole farm with 30 units of protected urea and we have just escaped the need to introduce baled silage to the diet.
We learnt from the summer of 2018 that it was better to cease spreading fertiliser during drought conditions to avoid nitrogen surges in grass when rain does arrive.
We walked the reseed which we set in June with our Teagasc advisor on July 27 and it really looked troubled: some parts were ready to graze but failed a pull test due to dry soils, while other parts were very bare.
It’s a precarious scenario as some areas of the reseed required spraying for weeds, while others are sure to develop weeds with rainfall.
Move forward five days and as soon as grazeable areas passed a pull test, we made the decision to graze with the cows, although we were a bit nervous that cows might harm the barer patches.
Looking back it was the right decision as grazing is by far the most important management tool in ensuring a new reseed will tiller, and it looks a lot healthier since.
Clover establishment looks extremely good; the plan now is to spread 10.10.20 and also spray for weeds seven days post-grazing. We will aim to graze every 14 days going forward.
We have ample fodder supplies saved this year, even though we never had a surplus on the grazing platform, so now the focus will be on building autumn grass covers to ensure the cows stay grazing into late November.
Our target will be to get the farm cover above 500kg/dm/ha over the next week.
To achieve this we have started grazing stressed grass on second-cut silage ground which was cut 20 days ago. I believe it will improve regrowth, which should mean we will have over 750kg/dm/ha by the start of September.
Farm work is quiet now, which allows for plenty of quality time with our daughters. They are disappointed that there is no livestock showing again this year.
Our youngest, Georgina, plays camogie once a week, and our older two girls can compete at horse and pony events across the country, yet calf showing doesn’t seem to be on the agenda.
We looked at the possibility of entering calves for the Balmoral Show, which is runnings in late September this year, as opposed to its traditional May dates, but they are not accepting entries from Southern competitors this year.
It is understandable that agricultural shows could not go ahead as they need public footfall to be financially viable, but I feel farmers could have done more within their breed societies to establish some form of socially distanced show classes for our future young farmers.
Showing teaches children a tremendous amount about stock handling, and it provides a degree of normality in the current climate.
Having missed two seasons now, many children could lose their passion for taking livestock out.
Numbers were already dwindling, and the loss of livestock showing would have a huge negative impact on our agricultural shows long term.
Breed societies are driven by many wonderful people on a volunteer basis. There is still time to organise a couple of events by individual counties, but it is up to us as farmers to start shouting and make it happen.
Someone needs to get the ball rolling and sort out a few events for the younger generation before another season passes us by.
Until then I’ll look forward to the Moorepark Open Day in mid-September.
Peter Hynes farms with his wife Paula in Aherla, Co Cork