It’s not just highly stocked farmers who are affected by the drought and upcoming winter feed shortage. Lower-stocked farms are also affected. Liam and Pierce Breen are well-established dairy farmers, farming a good block of land in the heart of the Golden Vale at Pallasgreen.

The stocking rate on the milking block is 2.14 cows/ha and the overall stocking rate is 2.16 cows/ha. Yet, they will be short of about 13% of their winter feed requirements, but only after taking fairly drastic action.

Empty cows

Twenty-five of the 150 milking cows are being sold in the next few weeks. These are empty cows and cows that they don’t want to keep. A reserve of silage was also carried over from last year.

“I’m milking 150 cows and happy to stay at that number. We have 40 in-calf heifers coming on, so I’ll keep them and clean up the herd by culling older and non-productive cows. I’m going to sell some in the mart next week and sell the rest in two weeks’ time,” Pierce said.

He was speaking at a Dairygold and Teagasc joint programme walk on his farm last week. Of the 60 or so people at the farm walk, almost all were going to be short of feed for the winter. Pierce’s feed budget is for a five-month winter.

I’m milking 150 cows and happy to stay at that number. We have 40 in-calf heifers coming on, so I’ll keep them and clean up the herd by culling older and non-productive cows

“Cows go out to grass after calving, but I’m still budgeting for a five-month winter. If I had eight months’ worth of silage, I’d be even happier. I had silage left over this winter but we were short of silage in 2013 and I swore I’d never be short again so we built a new silage slab and have tried our best to keep it full,” Pierce said.

One of the big unknowns for Pierce and for everyone else is what second- or third-cut silage crops will yield. Pierce’s fodder budget is based on the 60 acres of second-cut silage, yielding 5t of silage fresh weight per acre, back by about 2t/acre on what you would normally get for a second cut.

This field reseeded by Pierce will be coming back into the rotation over the next few weeks.

Teagasc adviser Kevin Fitzgerald said that by budgeting for lower than normal yields because of the drought and slow growth since, farmers will build in a margin of safety into their plans. The other margin of safety in the plan is to do with silage consumption. In the budget, the cows are down as eating 1.6t of silage per month.

Kevin said that this is based on silage being 18% to 20% dry matter. If the dry matter is higher, less of it will be consumed.

The total deficit on the Breen farm is 13%, equivalent to 200t of silage or 46t of meal. Many farmers are a lot worse off than this, and if it wasn’t for having an appropriate stocking rate, culling the cows and carrying over silage from last year, the Breens would be a lot worse off.

Options

Teagasc adviser Kevin Fitzgerald went through a number of options to reduce feed demand. He said culling cows is a good option once the cows are culled early.

Between 1 August and 10 April, a cow will eat almost 4t of feed dry matter between grass, silage and meal. But that drops to 1.8t DM between 1 December and 10 April. This makes the point that for culling to be an effective way of reducing feed requirements and for building up grass in the autumn, it must be done early.

He said culling late-calving cows will help to increase the overall production per cow in the herd.

“If a cow that calves in early February produces 420kg of milk solids in a year, the very same cow managed the same way but calving on 22 April will only produce 297kg of milk solids. Therefore, selling late calving cows is an obvious choice when culling,” Kevin said.

Effect

What effect will culling have on overall milk output though? Kevin said that culling 10% of the herd on 8 October will reduce overall milk output for the farm by 1.3%.

He said that if the cows are culled earlier on 29 August, the overall milk output will be reduced by 2.3%. This is lower than most people would imagine.

Also, selling low-yielding cows and low fat and protein cows will increase the average milk yield and fat and protein percentage for the herd.

In terms of selling cull cows, it was acknowledged that the factories are slow to take cows and the prices are poor. Kevin said that €3.10/kg is being quoted by the factories, but he said in reality the prices were lower than that due to quality and specification deductions.

He said cows that are dried off and fattened on silage and meal for the next 60 days and sold at the same price will generate an extra €43/head, but 0.7t DM of feed will be consumed per cow.

Another option is to put the cows for culling on once-a-day milking for 60 days and then sell. Because you are getting the value of the milk for 60 days, this generates more revenue.

This option generates an extra €98/head more than selling straight to the factory. However, a little over 1t DM of feed will be consumed in this scenario.

If drying off cows prior to sale or fattening, it’s better to do it abruptly but it’s more challenging when cows are milking more than 12 litres/day. Cut meal feeding and put cows on a maintenance-only diet for a week before drying off and a week after.

For most cows, this is a bare paddock. Do not use antibiotic dry cow tubes if the cows are to be slaughtered before the end of withdrawal period. Teat seal will help to prevent new infections after drying off and will have no impact on slaughter date. Keep cows on a clean paddock/cubicle shed and treat for flies to help prevent summer mastitis.

Meals

Liam Stack from Dairygold spoke about concentrate feed options for the autumn and winter. He said Dairygold has two new feeds formulated in response to the drought and silage shortage; grass extender and fodder extender.

Grass extender is a mix of corn gluten and soya hulls with 15.5% crude protein costing €235/t tipped or €250/t cubed and blown into a bin.

The fodder extender is a mix of palm kernel and soya hulls with a crude protein of 11% and is a replacement for silage in the winter. This is cheaper at €215/t tipped in the yard or €235/t cubed and blown into a bin.

The coarse rations are also available blown, but they will cost more as they have to be transported to the mill and back to the farm, whereas the bulk loads tipped are coming straight from the port.

Liam says farmers need to book their meal requirements for the winter early, so as to ensure supply. He says many liquid milk farmers in the south have already booked meal requirements for winter.

Fodder crop options for a good yield

Meanwhile, at a farm walk on Robert Power’s farm in Dualla, Co Tipperary, last week the extent of the fodder deficit was very apparent. About half of the 30 or so mostly beef farmers present had a 25% fodder deficit, while the other half had a 50% deficit.

Jim Gibbons from Germinal was speaking about fodder crop options. He said early sowing was essential to get a good yield.

Jim Gibbons from Germinalspeaking to a group of farmers at a Teagasc farm walk in Dualla, Co. Tipperary, last week.

“A day’s growth in July is worth one week’s growth in August and worth the full month of September. The latest I’d sow fodder rape is 1 September and stubble turnips 10 September. You could get away with sowing grass later, but the yield will still be back a lot compared to early sowing.

‘‘Farmers need to remember that it costs about €150/ac to sow a crop so you must get a yield return from it.

‘‘I think hybrid ryegrass is probably the best option for most farmers as you will get a few years of good growth from one sowing,” Jim said.