Greenfield update

The last of the bag nitrogen has gone out on the Greenfield farm in Kilkenny and that, combined with the soft rain of last week, is helping to boost growth rates up from 28kg per day to 50kg per day for the last week. This week, the cows are milking 16 litres at 5% fat and 4% protein (1.5kg MS) per cow per day on grass only.

Cows are going into paddocks with a good mix of grass and clover. Remember the paddocks on the Kilkenny farm are sown down to single grass varieties, not a mix of varieties. However, each single grass variety also has clover mixed in and at this time of the year the clover is really taking off.

Condition score is good on the herd and any cows that are a bit thin or lame are in a second herd that is grazed close to the parlour so they don’t have far to walk and have a chance to recover and put on a little flesh. Repairs to the stand-off pad have been completed. One of the land drainage pipes has been replaced because there was some pooling of water on one part of the pad where the pipe had been crushed.