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Make a plan now, while it’s fresh in your head, about what needs to change for the next grazing year.
I much prefer this approach than waiting until the New Year, when you have forgotten the issues that were top of your mind while you were measuring.
Itemise issues, like making a fertiliser paddock plan, a reseeding plan, a variety choice plan, a lime plan, a drainage plan – and maybe you can make a plan for collecting measurement information better, etc.
All the best farmers already will have a plan for these aspects, and unless it’s written down you could make the wrong decision when the time comes to act on the plan.
Now of course, like all plans, they won’t all happen next year, but over a three-year timeframe you should aim to get the jobs done.
In the fields you need to empty water troughs and turn off water supply to the fields if you can isolate that part of the supply.
Most should now have a chance to fix what you didn’t get time to sort out during the year, particularly in terms of fencing and ditches.
Again, two farmers were on this week wondering if it was OK to leave paddocks with a cover of 1,400kg.
They were concerned that because we have already have a got a good bit of frost the covers would be significantly reduced.
My line is the same: keep the grass. While, yes, you will get some burn-off of green material, it will still be worth eating next spring.
Shane Leane
Curtins Farm, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.5
Growth rates (kg/day) 14
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 501
Yield (l/cow/day) 14
Fat % 5.01
Protein % 4.27
Milk solids (kg/day) 1.33
Supplement (kg/cow/day) 1m 4s
We will finish up grazing this weekend but will stay milking indoors for another 10 days after that, all going well. At the moment we are still getting grazed grass in by day, with silage at night time. They are milking 13 litres at 4.4% protein and 5.61% fat, which is 1.34kg of milk solids per cow per day. Somatic cell count is 167 cells/ml. I estimate the cows are on 2kg of meal, 8kg of grass and 7kg of silage.
The culls we sold this week averaged €475 each in the mart. We were happy enough with this, given its almost 1 December and they have milked well for the last number of weeks. Last week, we measured a growth rate of 25kg per day, and our average farm cover was 679kg DM/ha which, at the moment, is 359kg per cow.
Donal Patton
Ballyhaise, Co Cavan
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.54
Growth rates (kg/day) n/a
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 645
Yield (l/cow/day) 9.5
Fat % 5.1
Protein % 3.9
Milk solids (kg/day) 1.1
Supplement (kg/cow/day) 3m and S
Our farm cover is 645kg/ha, which is on target. We closed up on the 7 November. The highest cover we will carry over is at 1,450kg DM/ha, which I know is on the high side, but is green to the base so it should be OK.
Luckily we have got quite a bit of lime out this autumn, so everything is up-to-date now, it is just a matter of keeping it topped up from here in. Also putting out some potassium (K) and low-K silage fields this week if it stays dry.
The milking cows are on pit silage and 3kg of meal, and we have 40% dried off. Milking is at 9.5 litres, 5.10 fat, 3.90 protein, SCC 152000.
We dosed yearlings this week and weighed, average being 255kg, with one calf below 230kg. .
Fergal Coughlan
Clonakilty, Co Cork
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.6
Growth rates (kg/day) 10
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 610
Yield (l/cow/day) 11.7
Fat % 4.99
Protein % 4.67
Milk solids (kg/day) 1.1
Supplement (kg/cow/day) 3m
We did the last farm walk last Monday, and our average farm cover was around 650kg DM/ha, so we finished grazing last Monday (14 November).
In Clonaklity it will go down as a good year, and we are happy with the performance of the herd – especially the cows on the mixed grass/clover treatments, which have produced 50kg more milks solids per cow than cows grazing the grass-only treatments.
We still have a proportion of the cows milking indoors on high-quality baled silage and 3kg of concentrate. All cows will be dry by the first week of December.
Current milk yield for this group is 11.7kg/day, at 4.99% fat and 4.67% protein, giving 1.12kg milk solids/cow per day.
Tom Lyng
Greenfield Farm, Co Kilkenny
Stocking rate (cows/ha) 2.6
Growth rates (kg/day) 12
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 700
Yield (l/cow/day) 12
Fat % 5.84
Protein % 4.46
Milk solids (kg/day) 1.2
Supplement (kg/cow/day) 2m 7s
We have switched to once-a-day milking the whole herd in an effort to minimise lameness and condition score.
The herd is still getting some grass but also quality bale silage.
Our last cover was completed on Monday and we got a cover of 700kg.
We decided to leave another paddock with a cover of 1,200kg ungrazed, and hopefully it will be more valuable in the spring.
The cows are on 3kg of meal and 6kg of grass silage. The yield is about 12 litres per cow, and the most recent results are 5.84% fat and 4.46% protein, with cell count at 166,000 cells/ml.
Lactose is at 4.57%, so it indicates the cows are well fed. The last TBC was 14.
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