Charles Clarke Bailieborough, Co Cavan

I went to once-a-day milking since the start of December. I was back to milking 48 cows and I didn’t think it was worth my while milking them twice a day for the amount of milk they were giving. Yields are back to between 8l and 9l per cow per day on 2.5kg of meal. Solids are holding steady at 4.45% fat and 3.59% protein.

Somatic cell count was 166k before going to once-a-day. I haven’t got a test result since so I don’t know what it is currently, but the milk filter is still clean so it shouldn’t be too bad. In any case, the whole herd will be dried off by 20 December. All the February-calving cows and any light cows are already dried off.

The milking cows are eating pit silage. I haven’t got this tested yet but it looks good. I have about 120 round bales of good silage kept for the spring. This works out at about one bale per cow, which probably isn’t enough but it’s better than just pit silage. The dry cows are on a mix of poorer-quality bales from out-farms and pit silage.

I expect to produce about 7,000 litres of milk in December. If this happens, we will have sold about 507,000 litres of milk in 2016. This works out at 4,609 litres per cow, plus there was about 40,000 litres fed to calves, so total production per cow will be 4,972l/cow. Protein is back this year to 3.33% and fat is 4.05%, so total milk solids produced per cow will be around the 380kg mark, with 610kg of meal fed.

Increasing the protein level is a big priority on this farm. Getting more grass into cows and improving the herd genetics is the way I’m trying to achieve this, but it’s a slow process. I have 45 heifer calves and some of these are Jersey crossbreds that I bought last August. Between them and using only high-protein bulls on the cows I’m hoping that it will increase quickly over the next couple of years. I suppose most progress will be made by getting rid of the low-protein cows and replacing them with higher-protein animals.

Between drying off cows and housing other stock, I’m as busy as ever. Drying off cows is slow, especially when you’re on your own. I’ve a good bit of planning and thinking to do.

I need to improve milking and calf-rearing facilities as both are labour intensive and time-consuming, but to do a big job will require a big investment and this is daunting, especially as the farm is fully stocked.

I’ve bought about 80% of my fertiliser requirement for next year. My fertiliser bill for this year is back between €5,000 and €6,000 from 2015 levels and what I have bought for 2017 is well back on this again so further savings will be made. I bought 47t in total, between urea, CAN plus sulphur, 18:6:12 and urea-based cut sward. It was bought on account and will be paid off during the year.

David Brady Stradone, Co Cavan

I’m still milking 40 cows twice a day. They’re milking very well at 13l per day, but I still plan to dry them off by the end of next week. I’m feeding them 3.5kg of meal along with pit silage. They were on bale silage up to last Saturday but I’m feeding pit silage now. Fat is 4.5% and protein is 3.70%, so average milk solids per day is 1.09kg.

I got the silage tested and the second cut, which we are feeding now, has a DMD of 68% and a dry matter of 42%, so it is incredibly dry, having been tedded out during harvest. The first cut, which probably won’t be used until February, is better quality at 74% DMD, but it is lower in dry matter at 25%.

I am doing a mineral analysis on the silage with the company that makes my dry cow mineral, so they will come back with a tailored mineral. I spread selenium with fertiliser this year so it will be interesting to see if the selenium levels in the silage are higher than other years.

I normally feed 1kg of meal per cow over the dry period and then sprinkle the mineral on top of this. I haven’t started feeding the dry cows yet but I will start when they are all dried off.

Body condition score of the herd is good. I estimate it at being over three, so they should calve down on target next year.

Based on what I expect to deliver between now and dry-off, I think total milk sales this year will be 442,000l. With about 10,000l fed to calves, total production based on my 80 cows is about 5,650l/cow at 3.99% fat and 3.37% protein. This works out at 428kg of milk solids per cow. I will have fed 800kg of meal to milking cows in 2016.

Once all the cows are dried off, I will be taking a few days off with the family, and more time off over Christmas. I have 84 pregnant animals for next year. I’d like to milk 90 cows, so I’m between minds about buying in a few extra animals. With cubicle space tight I will probably wait until the spring. I decided to hang on to the empty cows for a few months because I feel prices are too low at the moment.

We did a lot of work on the farm this year, draining and reseeding a significant proportion of the milking block. While it put a drain on cashflow, I’m glad I did it and will do some more next year, along with spreading extra lime and phosphorus. My heavy type soils lock up a huge amount of phosphorus, especially if the pH is not right. We soil-sampled the whole farm last week.