Stocking rates

As we are now on the last round of the 2018 grazing season, it’s time to look ahead to 2019. A lot of the more intensive farms will be stocked at three cows/ha on the milking block and 2.5 livestock units/ha overall, when you factor in youngstock on outside bits of land. One livestock unit will eat about 5.5t DM of feed in a year. If the plan is to feed 500kg of meal per head, then the cows will have to eat 5t DM of grass, between grazing and silage. To do this, you must grow 6.25t DM/cow, as only 80% of what is grown is utilised. So a farm stocked at 2.5 LU/ha overall and feeding 500kg of meal, it needs to be growing 15.6t/ha overall to justify the stocking rate, unless more meal or silage is bought in. Growing nearly 16t/ha over the whole farm is a big ask. Average growth rates on most well-managed milking platforms are closer to 14t/ha and probably 20-30% less on the outfarms. Don’t overstock the farm by overestimating what it is growing.

Empty cows

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I was chatting to a farmer during the week about milking empty cows. He has enough silage for the cows he has currently, including the empties. He has 15 empty cows (15% of the herd). His options are to sell now for around €400/head, or milk on and sell in late December for the same money. We talked through the income and expenditure involved:

  • Milk sales: The cows would produce 16l/day for rest of October, 14l/day in November and 12/l day until 20 December. Total = 980l at 40c/l = €392/cow
  • Grass costs: They would be eating 12kg of grass per day for the next month at 6c/kgDM = €22/cow
  • Silage costs: 12kg of silage per day from 10 November until 20 December at 20c/kgDM = €96/cow
  • Opportunity cost of grass: If the cows were sold now there would be more grass available for the rest of the herd. The 15 cows eat 180kgDM of grass per day. Over 30 days this is 5.4t of grass, enough to feed the rest of the cows for five days. Every extra day at grass in autumn is worth €1.70/day/cow/day. The total opportunity cost is 85 x €1.70 x 5 = €723, or €48/cow.
  • Meal costs: We said the cows will be fed 4kg of meal costing €270/t for 70 days, costing €76/cow.

    • So total income is €392 and total costs are €242, leaving a margin of €150/cow. However, this is before the extra labour involved in milking the cows is factored in and the opportunity cost of the cubicle space. The other thing we didn’t factor in was the sale price of the cow in December. Who knows what this will be? I suppose the point is to do the sums for yourself and make your own mind up if it’s worthwhile or not.

    Soil sampling

    Now is a good time to take soil samples. You should leave at least three months between the last application of phosphorus or potash. So sample fields now before the last application of slurry. This way, you will have results back early and decisions can be made about fertiliser plans before the end of the year.