Scanning: We are now at the peak of the scanning season. Some farmers have decided to drop the pregnancy scan this year in an effort to cut costs. This is fine – observing bulling cows will help to identify culls, but this isn’t totally fool-proof, as some pregnant cows can display signs of heat when they are actually in-calf. The big advantage of pregnancy diagnosis now is determining what cows to sell first in autumn. Highly stocked farms will need to reduce their demand for grass and selling the culls is a good first step. The other advantage is to be able to put accurate calving dates on services by bulls. Some farmers arrange to pay the scanner on a per-hour basis and have plenty of help available on the day to keep the throughput of cows high. This could be a win/win for both parties, as the scanner gets through more cows in the day and the farmer writes a smaller cheque than he would if charged on a per-cow basis. The other option is the milk testing. Like with scanning, cows must be greater than 30 days served for the pregnancy to be picked up. Some farmers like this option because it is less invasive on the cows and can be done at the same time as milk recording but it does cost a bit more, at €3.60 including VAT per cow.

Feeding: The word on the ground by some people selling feedstuffs is that grass quality is poor due to a lack of sunshine and so it is not capable of feeding the cow enough to produce to her potential. Don’t fall for lame excuses to feed more meal. The results from grass samples taken on farms and analysed in Moorepark are showing DMD levels of 85 to 86%, which is no different to other years. Dry matter is lower but this just means cows will eat more of it to get their fill. Decisions around how much supplement to feed should always be based on grass supply relative to target. Some farmers are feeding supplement now to build up grass covers and this is fine. For me, good quality bale silage is the best feed, as it has a big effect on reducing grass intake yet doesn’t reduce protein. Soya hulls at €160/t is good value also and is probably more convenient for many, as it can be fed through the parlour. With dairy nuts retailing for €240/t to €280/t it’s very hard to see where you are going to make back the extra costs involved.

Fixed margin: There’s always a lot of discussion about fixed-milk-price schemes and forward selling milk. But what about forward buying to help secure margin? As reported on page 69, merchants are quoting CAN at around €220/t. I’m sure better deals can be done than that quoted, with reports of CAN being sold for 200/t. With fertiliser accounting for between 20% and 30% of variable costs, there is an opportunity to fix this proportion of your costs now, when they are relatively low. Maybe you should consider buying now for use next year. Even if this money is borrowed at 5% interest, it will only add €10/t to the cost. There’s no guarantee that fertiliser prices won’t drop further, but the point is to reduce your exposure to market fluctuations. Perhaps it is a good use for some of the co-op loan schemes.