First-cut was mowed on the Oliver farm in Limavady, Co Derry last Monday, and the contractor spread slurry on silage ground at 2,500 gallon per acre at the end of the week.
A dribble bar was used for spreading, as nitrogen losses to ammonia are greater during dry and sunny weather. John followed on with inorganic fertiliser (23:0:10) on silage ground on Tuesday at 2.5 bags/ac.
First cut was mowed on John Oliver's farm last Monday.
“Looking at the bulk of silage in the pit, I probably won’t need to cut all the ground again for second-cut. I should be able to bring forward reseeding, which was being planned for the autumn,” he said
The two fields that are earmarked for reseeding are mainly used for grazing, so some silage ground will be grazed instead when the reseeded area is out of the rotation.
Grass growth has held up relatively well on the Oliver farm and the latest grass walk on Wednesday had an average growth rate of 65kg DM/ha/day.
Dry weather has had less impact on growth in the west compared to eastern parts of the country, as the table below indicates.
Although, it does vary locally, and some farms in the north-west with light, sandy soils are in significant need of rain.
In general, pre-grazing covers on the Oliver farm have not been too strong so far this year and John has not had to top paddocks after grazing.
The exception was last week, when cows grazed two paddocks that had a higher proportion of stem in the sward.
“Ideally, I would have liked to have just put the grass in the pit and skipped over grazing the stemier stuff, but the ground is quite steep and is not suitable for silage,” he said.
Fly treatments
Heifers received an anti-parasitic pour-on earlier this week when they were in for weighing. The recent dry, hot weather, coupled with two cases of summer mastitis last year, led John to administer fly treatments a few weeks earlier this year. The plan is to treat heifers with pour-on every four or five weeks throughout the summer.
“The weighing showed that heifers are on target to calve down at between 560-580kg. There are 30 home-bred heifers due to calve with the main herd from early November onwards,” John said.
He is currently in the process of transitioning from an autumn to a spring-calving profile. This is being done over two or three seasons. The first step is taking place this year, when calving has been pushed back by two and a half months. John has also bought in 23 high-EBI maiden heifers from a farmer in Wexford. He synchronised this batch with PRIDs and served them with sexed semen in May for calving in February 2020. The stock bull came out of the milking herd last week, so any later calvers will be due along with the bought-in heifers.
Feed rates
John has been closely monitoring concentrate feed rate and milk yields. He had been considering increasing meal feeding to help boost output.
“I am getting 24l from 3.2kg of meal at the minute. Three weeks ago, it was 25l from 5kg, but when I looked at margin over concentrate (milk cheque minus meal bill) I wasn’t making any more money because the extra milk was just about covering the higher meal input,” he said.
The Oliver herd is currently 230 days in milk on average and there would be a limited response to additional concentrates. The first cow to calve last year is currently sitting at 294 days, but she is still yielding 22l from 1kg of meal.
She will be milked beyond 305 days, as she is still a long way off calving in November and is yielding well with good condition.
The challenge for John this year could be stopping cows from putting on too much condition ahead of the delayed calving date, so close monitoring of body condition scores will be needed.
In a group call with Dairylink participants last week, the main message from programme adviser Aidan Cushnahan was to keep measuring grass regularly.
As the table below shows, growth varies widely across Dairylink farms at present.
More importantly, grass growth on individual farms has fluctuated over the past few weeks.
“Keep walking the milking platform and measuring, because it will pick up on a grass shortage sooner rather than later. If you are running short, don’t be afraid to go with a bit of extra meal or buffer-feeding to help take the pressure off until things pick up again,” Aidan said.
“On the other hand, if you are running ahead of demand, don’t be afraid to take some grass out for silage. The sooner you take it out, the quicker it will come back,” he added.
Grass growth varies widely across Dairylink Ireland farms at present.Some programme participants are buffer-feeding cows to bridge feed deficits.Farmers are being encouraged to walk milking platforms regularly to measure and budget grass.First-cut silage has been completed on all Dairylink farms. Read more
Dairylink: getting more from summer grass in Derry
Action needed to address grass surplus
First-cut was mowed on the Oliver farm in Limavady, Co Derry last Monday, and the contractor spread slurry on silage ground at 2,500 gallon per acre at the end of the week.
A dribble bar was used for spreading, as nitrogen losses to ammonia are greater during dry and sunny weather. John followed on with inorganic fertiliser (23:0:10) on silage ground on Tuesday at 2.5 bags/ac.
First cut was mowed on John Oliver's farm last Monday.
“Looking at the bulk of silage in the pit, I probably won’t need to cut all the ground again for second-cut. I should be able to bring forward reseeding, which was being planned for the autumn,” he said
The two fields that are earmarked for reseeding are mainly used for grazing, so some silage ground will be grazed instead when the reseeded area is out of the rotation.
Grass growth has held up relatively well on the Oliver farm and the latest grass walk on Wednesday had an average growth rate of 65kg DM/ha/day.
Dry weather has had less impact on growth in the west compared to eastern parts of the country, as the table below indicates.
Although, it does vary locally, and some farms in the north-west with light, sandy soils are in significant need of rain.
In general, pre-grazing covers on the Oliver farm have not been too strong so far this year and John has not had to top paddocks after grazing.
The exception was last week, when cows grazed two paddocks that had a higher proportion of stem in the sward.
“Ideally, I would have liked to have just put the grass in the pit and skipped over grazing the stemier stuff, but the ground is quite steep and is not suitable for silage,” he said.
Fly treatments
Heifers received an anti-parasitic pour-on earlier this week when they were in for weighing. The recent dry, hot weather, coupled with two cases of summer mastitis last year, led John to administer fly treatments a few weeks earlier this year. The plan is to treat heifers with pour-on every four or five weeks throughout the summer.
“The weighing showed that heifers are on target to calve down at between 560-580kg. There are 30 home-bred heifers due to calve with the main herd from early November onwards,” John said.
He is currently in the process of transitioning from an autumn to a spring-calving profile. This is being done over two or three seasons. The first step is taking place this year, when calving has been pushed back by two and a half months. John has also bought in 23 high-EBI maiden heifers from a farmer in Wexford. He synchronised this batch with PRIDs and served them with sexed semen in May for calving in February 2020. The stock bull came out of the milking herd last week, so any later calvers will be due along with the bought-in heifers.
Feed rates
John has been closely monitoring concentrate feed rate and milk yields. He had been considering increasing meal feeding to help boost output.
“I am getting 24l from 3.2kg of meal at the minute. Three weeks ago, it was 25l from 5kg, but when I looked at margin over concentrate (milk cheque minus meal bill) I wasn’t making any more money because the extra milk was just about covering the higher meal input,” he said.
The Oliver herd is currently 230 days in milk on average and there would be a limited response to additional concentrates. The first cow to calve last year is currently sitting at 294 days, but she is still yielding 22l from 1kg of meal.
She will be milked beyond 305 days, as she is still a long way off calving in November and is yielding well with good condition.
The challenge for John this year could be stopping cows from putting on too much condition ahead of the delayed calving date, so close monitoring of body condition scores will be needed.
In a group call with Dairylink participants last week, the main message from programme adviser Aidan Cushnahan was to keep measuring grass regularly.
As the table below shows, growth varies widely across Dairylink farms at present.
More importantly, grass growth on individual farms has fluctuated over the past few weeks.
“Keep walking the milking platform and measuring, because it will pick up on a grass shortage sooner rather than later. If you are running short, don’t be afraid to go with a bit of extra meal or buffer-feeding to help take the pressure off until things pick up again,” Aidan said.
“On the other hand, if you are running ahead of demand, don’t be afraid to take some grass out for silage. The sooner you take it out, the quicker it will come back,” he added.
Grass growth varies widely across Dairylink Ireland farms at present.Some programme participants are buffer-feeding cows to bridge feed deficits.Farmers are being encouraged to walk milking platforms regularly to measure and budget grass.First-cut silage has been completed on all Dairylink farms. Read more
Dairylink: getting more from summer grass in Derry
Action needed to address grass surplus
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