Milk price:

With more cuts to the June price by processors this week, the morale among dairy farmers is beginning to suffer. There is genuine worry about where the markets are going, especially given the vibes coming from New Zealand where farmers are anticipating another year of low payout, as reflected in the recent auction results. So what can we do? On page 27 this week, I go through a number of steps that can be taken to reduce your cost base over the coming months. Like we’ve said before, the key is to be proactive by identifying problems early, talking about it to family members, the bank manager, your adviser or the discussion group, and then coming up with a plan. Extending the overdraft or buying more inputs on credit is not the only solution – there are better and cheaper alternatives.

Autumn herds:

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September- and October-calving cows are now being dried off. Some of the autumn-calving cows are milking too well to be tubed straight away so farmers are putting them on a restricted diet for three or four days before tubing just to get down to less than 12 litres per day. After drying off, they are letting them back out to grass to clean up after the milking herd or youngstock, keeping them on a restricted grass diet to prevent over conditioning and metabolic disorders after calving. Don’t forget the fluke dose on dried-off cows – it’s critically important. Choose product carefully as many products only treat adult fluke and not the immature fluke. If the cows are out on grass they are potentially getting exposed to fluke throughout the dry period so are more at risk than spring-calving cows that are dosed during the winter when dry and indoors.

Breeding:

With 12 or 13 weeks of breeding now completed on most farms, it’s time to pull out the bulls or put away the AI flask. Cows bred today will be calving on 1 May and this is too late. Some will say that a late-calving cow is more valuable than an empty cow but you are relying on another dairy farmer to buy an animal you don’t want so it’s a risky market. OK, an empty cow isn’t worth much as a cull next October, but at least there’s a good market for her and she’s gone. You’re not looking for a buyer or hanging on to a cow you don’t want, with all associated costs. Worse again, many will end up calving and milking these cows again next May and June – disaster!

BVD:

I was talking to a farmer this week who didn’t have a PI calf after three years of BVD ear notching, so he decided to stop vaccinating for BVD. Last month, he got a spike in his milk test for BVD antibodies and around the same time noticed that a lot of cows came back around bulling that he thought were in-calf. He immediately vaccinated and things began to settle down. Whether or not the two are related is hard to say, but with so many PI calves still on farms it’s better to continue to vaccinate.