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Feed
So far, 2019 has been a good year for grass growth and most farmers have more silage in the yard now than they had last October.
Remember the lesson from 2018 – have a good reserve of feed in the yard. This year could be the year to build up that reserve as many lower-stocked farmers are considering selling second-cut silage.
On a price per kilo of dry matter basis, anything less than 15c/kg DM is good value, so if you have the money to buy it and the space to store it, then it’s a good investment. How do you value a standing crop?
The first thing to do is to estimate the yield. If ideal pre-grazing yield is 1,500kg DM/ha, a decent second-cut silage will yield twice that at 3,000kg DM/ha.
Let’s say it costs €100/acre to buy the crop. This means the grass costs 8c/kg DM. Now you need to add on the cost of harvesting. Let’s say this is €100/acre for second cut, which works out at 8c/kg DM so the total cost will be 16c/kg DM. Yield has a big influence on cost per kilo. If an extra tonne DM/ha is harvested, the total cost falls to 12c/kg DM. Don’t forget that these costs are before utilisation losses are taken into account. At best, only 80% of the silage in the field will make it to the pit, and this is after deductions for headlands and ditches.
As for bales, a round bale of silage usually has between 180kg and 250kg of dry matter. A round bale of hay has a lot less feed in it, usually around 160kg of dry matter.
Money
July should be a money-making month on dairy farms. It’s probably the easiest month in the year to reduce expenditure and at the same time maximise yield. A lot of farmers are still feeding more than 2kg of meal per cow per day. It’s hard to make sense of that when grass is plentiful.
Is grass quality the issue? Response to meal will be good when grass quality is bad. It costs the same to grow good grass as it does bad grass, but cow performance is vastly different on both.
Those who focus on grass quality will get high yields in July at a fraction of the cost compared to those feeding a lot of meal. Aim to graze leafy covers of 1,400 to 1,600kg/ha for July. A lot of farmers cut back to little or no meal in July.
Milking
Cows are beginning to get lazy now and some cows are slow to go into the parlour.
New Zealand lameness expert Neil Chesterton says not to go out into the collecting yard to round cows in. He says this creates more problems than it solves.
Instead, let the cows sort themselves out in the yard – they are usually waiting for a dominant cow to enter. Start putting on clusters on the first cows in, rather than waiting for the whole row to fill up. He also says it’s faster to milk with a few spaces empty (clusters hanging up) than go out to fetch cows.
Those with adjustable breast rails should widen the cow standing area to give cows more room and to line up better.
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