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Grass quality is holding well so far at Greenfield Farm Kilkenny, with a nice mix of clover and grass in swards. The recent rains have boosted growth rates, which reached a peak this week of 110kg DM/ha. No paddocks have been topped. A decision was taken to skip over three paddocks as covers were too high. In years gone by on a lot of well-run dairy farms all paddocks would have been topped once already and maybe a second time. Growth rates and quality suffered.
The April milk statement for Greenfield Farm that arrived last week showed a bottom line of €74,400. For the same month last year it was €53,750. That’s a difference of €20,650. Now this year we are milking more cows and sold more litres (210,600 v 196,200). Herd fat percentage was poorer but protein was improved. Fat percentage this year was 4.40% versus 4.62% last year while protein percentage was 3.60% versus 3.52% last year.
So when you total it all up given the extra litres we sold 17,300 kg milk solids this year compared with 16,440 kg of milk solids in 2016. The other big change is milk price – Glanbia average price per kilo milk solids for the same month last year was €3.04 versus €4.34/kg MS this year – a 30% shift up in milk price. At the moment 353 cows are being milked with about 40 of them on once-a-day in the second herd.
Glanbia average
When we compare the Greenfield figures for the last month to the Glanbia average composition percentages there is a significant difference. The farm delivered a fat percentage of 4.40% compared with the Glanbia average of 3.93%. The farm protein percentage delivered was 3.60% versus the Glanbia group average of 3.41%. Total both up and multiply by the April volume and there is a difference of €6,000 in the milk cheque for the same volume.
Last month we had a difference of €7,700 for the same calculation. Over two months that’s €13,700 in the additional value of milk solids alone when we compare the Greenfield percentages to the Glanbia average figures for the same volume.
The reseeds are beginning to really move (see video) now that they have got a good drop of rain. Seedling weeds (docks etc) are also beginning to emerge and a spray will be used in the next two weeks as we have repeatedly got the best response from spraying at this early stage.
As soon as the weeds reach the size of a €2 coin they are ready for spraying. The grass should also be strong enough at that stage. Nitrogen (at a bag/acre) went out this week to give the young grass a boost and keep it moving above the weeds.
On average about seven or eight cows are repeating every day at the moment. One day I called last week there were 11 cows in heat – that was the most there had been for any day of the second round. Other days it was five, six and seven returning in heat. By the end of this week we will be six weeks into breeding. The vasectomised bulls are working away in the herd. One did get a slight knock leaving the parlour and has been lame since but the rest are performing alright. Remember breeding started 22 April and 88% (298/337) were submitted in the first 22 or 23 days.
There are only 26ha (65 acres) stopped for main-crop first-cut silage. So far, about 150 round bales of surplus grass have been taken out and there are bales left from last year but all that is still well short of what is needed. We know from past experience that the best time to bulk up winter feed for this farm is in the first cut so the pressure will be on to have enough winter feed.
Some silage was fed out in early May when the dry weather pinched growth rates. For two weeks about 4kg of silage dry matter per head was fed - in total about 60 round bales of high-quality silage from last year. Also, when the silage was going in 4kg of meal was fed per cow. Over the period about 70kg of meal was fed per cow bringing the total meal fed to 150kg per cow for the year to date. Feeding allowed the grass requirement to fall from 17kg per day down to less than 9kg per day on average, allowing time for the farm to fill up with grass again when the rains arrived.
Farm cover
Now farm cover is up to 738kg (180kg/cow) at a stocking rate of 4.1 cows/ha. The last three growth rates recorded were 80kg, 80kg and 110kg per day. See video of the cows performing well now at grass and in good condition despite the early May grass shortage.
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