At present, farms in the east and south are the worst affected, but with no rain in the forecast, all farms will be affected soon. Even farms on heavy land are being affected, as grass growth reduces and fields turn yellow.
A lot of low-lying and heavy soils have low percentages of perennial ryegrass in the swards and instead have shallow rooting grass species that are now under pressure due to a lack of water. Fields that are low in soil fertility are also being hit hardest first.
Very high dry matters
The gap between what the cows need and what they can get in the fields has to be bridged. The first thing to say is that grass dry matters are very high, over 22%, so there is more feed in the fields than you might think and cows are actually content enough in most situations.
In terms of supplement, meal is the first port of call. Cows can be fed up to 6kg of meal per day. After that, I would look at silages. Where good-quality bales are available, feed these. Where they are not, pit silage is the next option, but the quality of this can be variable and is definitely not as good as you would like to be feeding to milking cows now.
Where this is the case, feeding high-fibre straights such as soya hulls or palm kernel (PKE) is the next option. In extreme cases where grass and silage is scarce, up to half of the diet could be meals, between concentrates and straights such as PKE or soya hulls. Cows should be built up to this level of meal slowly though and the diet should be balanced for protein and fibre.
Sensible option
Grazing second-cut silage is a sensible option. I have no doubt that grass will be growing in excess of 100kg/day again this year. It is only a matter of when. Grass surpluses will be generated again, so don’t be afraid to graze or zero graze silage ground.
The next thing is water. This is critically important for animal health and welfare. Now is the time to be thinking of contingency plans in the event of wells going dry or pressure decreasing on mains supply. All of these things are likely to be happening at present and are likely to happen more over the coming weeks.
Read more
Monday dairy markets: SMP prices fall as India dumps 60,000t on world markets
Greenfield: 'water is gold at the moment'
At present, farms in the east and south are the worst affected, but with no rain in the forecast, all farms will be affected soon. Even farms on heavy land are being affected, as grass growth reduces and fields turn yellow.
A lot of low-lying and heavy soils have low percentages of perennial ryegrass in the swards and instead have shallow rooting grass species that are now under pressure due to a lack of water. Fields that are low in soil fertility are also being hit hardest first.
Very high dry matters
The gap between what the cows need and what they can get in the fields has to be bridged. The first thing to say is that grass dry matters are very high, over 22%, so there is more feed in the fields than you might think and cows are actually content enough in most situations.
In terms of supplement, meal is the first port of call. Cows can be fed up to 6kg of meal per day. After that, I would look at silages. Where good-quality bales are available, feed these. Where they are not, pit silage is the next option, but the quality of this can be variable and is definitely not as good as you would like to be feeding to milking cows now.
Where this is the case, feeding high-fibre straights such as soya hulls or palm kernel (PKE) is the next option. In extreme cases where grass and silage is scarce, up to half of the diet could be meals, between concentrates and straights such as PKE or soya hulls. Cows should be built up to this level of meal slowly though and the diet should be balanced for protein and fibre.
Sensible option
Grazing second-cut silage is a sensible option. I have no doubt that grass will be growing in excess of 100kg/day again this year. It is only a matter of when. Grass surpluses will be generated again, so don’t be afraid to graze or zero graze silage ground.
The next thing is water. This is critically important for animal health and welfare. Now is the time to be thinking of contingency plans in the event of wells going dry or pressure decreasing on mains supply. All of these things are likely to be happening at present and are likely to happen more over the coming weeks.
Read more
Monday dairy markets: SMP prices fall as India dumps 60,000t on world markets
Greenfield: 'water is gold at the moment'
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