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Managing surplus grass was one of the key messages from a Teagasc/Aurivo farm walk which took place at Ger Brennan’s farm at Strokestown, Co Roscommon, last year.
Teagasc personnel Frank Kelly and Pat Clarke advised those present to watch pre-grazing grass covers as extraordinary growth rates over the preceeding weeks had led to a rise in pre-grazing yields, which reduce milk protein percentages and milk yield.
“Milk protein usually drops by about 0.1% during June and July in the Aurivo catchment area and this costs a 60-cow farmer about €1,100 per month in lost income,” Kelly said.
He also said that milk yield would drop by between one and three litres per cow per day when pre-grazing covers are too strong, and many farmers react to this drop in yield by feeding more meal, which compounds the problem.
The ideal pre-grazing yield is 1,400kg to 1,600kg and Kelly said that any paddock above this should be removed as bale silage. The host farmer, Ger Brennan, had already taken out two lots of bale silage since the start of May and was going to cut another paddock after the farm walk.
Costs
Pat Clarke said many farmers baulk at the costs of taking out bales, but he maintained that the true cost of not taking out bales is actually much higher.
As an example, he said if Ger got 10 bales from the surplus paddock that he intended cutting later on Friday, it would cost him about €120 between contractor and plastic costs.
If Ger decided not to cut the paddock but graze it instead, Pat said the knock-on effects would last for at least 20 days as there was a significant amount of stem in the base of the sward, even though it looked leafy.
Clarke suggested that yield would drop by 2kg per cow for 20 days which would cost Ger, with 75 cows about €750 in lost milk sales. To counteract the drop in yield, he said Ger could feed extra meal, but feeding 2.5kg of meal per cow over 20 days would cost €950, presuming meal costs €250/t.
On top of the loss in milk there would be a drop in protein percent also and he said this will be over €1,000 if protein drop by more than 0.1% on Ger’s farm.
“So between the drop in milk yield and protein percent, or the cost of offsetting the drop in yield by buying in meal, the costs of not taking out bales are much more than the costs of making bales. The other advantage of the bales is that they are very high quality, over 70% DMD and they can be fed out to milking cows in the autumn instead of meal,” Clarke concluded.
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