1,000l gain from better grass management on Dairylink farm

With weather conditions perfect for the last week in both the west and the east of Northern Ireland, two of our Dairylink project farms hosted autumn farm walks.

Nigel and Edna Corbett hosted a walk last Thursday just outside Dromara near Banbridge in Co Down.

This week, Robin and Heather Clements hosted a walk on Tuesday on their farm just outside Trillick, Co Tyrone.

Both events were very successful, with key take-home messages and potential actions for all in attendance.

Tyrone weather woes

If the wet weather had continued, visitors to the Clements farm on Tuesday would have been looking at cows inside on full winter rations. Instead, better weather has allowed a return to grazing and a chance to play catch-up with field work on the farm.

The walk highlighted the challenge dairy farming in this area can pose, at 500 feet above sea level and regularly over 50 inches of rainfall annually.

This high rainfall, coupled with heavy soil types on parts of Robin’s farm, can make grazing or doing any fieldwork difficult when the rain falls.

The conditions also helped visitors appreciate the system of production Robin operates. If you had arrived on this farm five years ago, you would have been looking at Suckler cows and sheep – now it is black and white cows.

Visitors were able to see at first hand the level of investment into the grazing platform infrastructure, and the daily management of the herd required on the farm.

Robin gave a detailed account for the key areas, including land improvement, soil fertility, grazing infrastructure, and cow type. The visitors got an excellent first-hand commentary from Robin on the farm, highlighting where it has come from and the general direction it is heading.

Nigel Corbett, near Banbridge, Co Down

This has been a great grass year on the farm. It’s the first year I have measured grass and feel it is helping me capitalise on this resource.

I have placed a big emphasis on improving silage quality and putting better quality grass for grazing in front of the cows this year, in an attempt to increase productivity and efficiency on the farm.

Autumn analysis

While I have not started feeding silage yet, this autumn’s analysis suggests quality is good, with digestible value of 72 units, ME of 11.6 and protein content at 15%.

Grazing is going well this week and really has gone well since turnout on this farm, which was 14 March this year.

While this might not be early for those in the lower half of the country, for us getting March grazing into cows really paid dividends with strong grass growth all year in those paddocks that we grazed first.

I carried a relatively high stocking rate for us all through the grazing season this year, at around 3.5 cows/ha, with a small surplus area baled during those peak growth months.

Silage area

I have a designated silage area adjacent to the grazing block, which has been cut three times for silage, and cows are just finished grazing the silage aftermath this week after the final cut.

Next year, I hope to get out even earlier with a portion of the herd, and I intend to get onto some of the drier silage fields before closing them for silage next spring.

My milk produced from forage has increased by approximately 1,000 litres in the past 12 months, and I believe this can be largely attributed to better grass management.

Key take-home messages from both walks

Cash budgeting was used to measure the impact of any change in the production system, and help provide a three-year vision for each business.

Actions farmers in similar positions can take