The importance of keeping on top of grass with changing weather cannot be overstated, according to dairy farmer, Mark Lonergan from Rosegreen, Cashel, Co. Tipperary.

Lonergan shared how he manages grass quality to drive performance during a Teagasc/Dairygold farm walk today (Thursday, May 29).

He discussed all aspects of herd performance, breeding progress and grassland management, but stressed the importance of keeping on top of grass in changing weather patterns.

Teagasc dairy advisor, Darragh Kelly, also discussed farm performance with Lonergan who highlighted his new "comfort" from milking 107 cows instead of a previous 128.

According to Lonergan, this has allowed him to get a full three grazing in most of his paddocks, which has increased intakes and has allowed for better cow performance.

During the farm walk today, participants heard that the milking platform is stocked at 3.5 cows/ha, which gives him more breathing space when growth rates slow down throughout the summer months.

Lonergan also said that he had to reduce his whole farm stocking rate from 2.8 cows/ha down to 2.27 cows/ha due to pressures on fodder.

" I was buying in silage and never had enough silage, and it's hard to grow more than 13t dry matter (DM)/ha," he said.

Teagasc dairy specialist, Stuart Childs, also went through the current grass performance on the farm, which is driving the solids production.

Lonergan carried out a grass walk last week where he noted that growth rate was 55kg/DM/day but, when he went walking the farm again just a number of days later, growth had shot up to 85kg DM/ha.

Overall, much-needed rain in the last week to 10 days on the farm is beginning to kick on grass growth.

Currently, the average farm cover (AFC) on the farm is 730kg DM/ha with a 210 kg DM/cow as he has stocked at 3.5 cows/ha now that the silage ground is closed off on the farm, which means demand is up at 65kg DM/day.

Mark walks the farm every 4-5 days because previously he got caught during one rotation where he did not walk the farm for seven days, and an 8ac paddock should have been taken out.

"It messed up the rotation, the situation can change very quick," he shared.

Lonergan now aims to keep cover/cow over 170-180kg DM/cow and reckons that growth will be averaging around 70kg DM/day for the next two weeks.

"I've one paddock earmarked to take out in the next few days for bales to stay ahead of quality," he added

Cows are performing well due to Lonergan 's persistence in keeping quality ahead of the cows as they are yielding 26L/cow/day with 3.7% protein and 4.3% milk fat, equating to 2.14 kg/MS/day.

This production is supported by an 18kg of grass DM allocation per cow and 2kg of a 11% crude protein (CP) nut per cow/day, as he feels there is enough protein in the diet coming from grass which allows him to drop the CP of the dairy nut.

He highlighted that he was feeding a 16% nut earlier in the year and the cows were eating up to 4kg/day until the burst of growth at the end of April.

Lonergan also pre-mowed about 80% of the last rotation in order to keep ahead of grass quality but to also keep grass in the system as growth rates took a hit due to low moisture in the soil and he did not want to run short by taking out paddocks for bales.

He said: "If I didn't pre mow those paddocks, the cows would have left 20% of the grass in the paddocks".

The farmer also acknowledged that protein did take a hit as the cows were grazing more stem, but said that it would also have taken a hit if he had to feed silage.