Silage quality: I hear some reports of very average-quality pit silage on some farms that have already opened the pit. Many farmers now wait until the pit is opened to take a representative silage sample as they feel the silage corer can be misleading. They prefer to take a small sample from right across the feed face. For winter milking herds, it is important to know what quality you have because big savings on meal feeding are possible, and it might be necessary to feed more because of poor-quality or low dry matter.

For spring-calving herds, it can be argued silage quality is not as important. This is definitely the case this year as most herds in the south have dried off early as most processors are close to 10% over quota and official Department figures to end of October show the Republic is 7.6% over quota nationally.

Many spring-calving farmers are feeding quality round bale silage now to any cows that are still milking. It might be a good idea to hold on to some of these bales for the spring, especially if pit silage is only average at best.

Lameness: A routine hoof trim across the herd around now might be a good idea as a preventative action to reduce lameness next spring.

A lot of cows still out grazing are tender on their feet, especially if walking long distances to the furthest paddocks. Mind these cows because a week of struggling to paddocks can really take its toll and you can drop a condition score or more in a matter of days.

Milk price: Glanbia and Kerry held their October milk price this week, but many of the speakers at the dairy conference talked about the volatility and problems on the world market. There is an onus on all farmers now to reassess 2015 plans and see if cashflow will be good enough to get through a potentially very low milk price next year. Maybe there is an option to hold for the moment and build better cash and fodder reserves.

The global dairy auction dropped another 3% this week and if New Zealand markets are under pressure, there is more milk on the world market and that trickles down to a farmer in Ireland. Do your budgets for 2015 and don’t forget to include factors such as tax and drawings. Often these are the factors that are forgotten about but are the most important.

Dairy conference: Stan McCarthy from Kerry and Donal Dennehy from Danone sent very clear messages to farmers. Both said customers are demanding that milk quality standards that are rising must rise further. All said, this depends on the farmer producing a quality litre of milk, after which it is up to everyone else to improve that or up-sell it on to world markets.

They said it is professionalism at all levels which is important, and when quotas go farmers will be able to sell all litres, so there is an onus on the farm to have milk quality right.