Having completed a grass cover yesterday, the inevitable was confirmed - surpluses will have to be taken out.

With an AFC of 1,077kgs/DM/ha cover per cow of 303kgs/DM and growth rates exceeding demand (growth rate 80kgs/DM/day; demand 57kgs/DM/day), whatever way the figures are looked at – there’s no denying we are swamped with grass.

Currently, cows are grazing 15.5kg/day and getting 1kg of barley in the parlour. It certainly is questionable as to whether we should be using any supplement at all, but given the fact that we have already purchased 400kgs of barley per cow, management are keen to use this up as it will not carry over into next season.

In future, the farm will definitely consider buying supplement as required, as opposed to buying all feed at once, but for now we must deal with the current situation which requires this feed to be used up this season.

Having reviewed the grass wedge, it was decided to mow 25ha for silage, which we will begin tomorrow with our own tractor and 2.7m mower.

These surpluses will be baled and used to fill any feed deficits in future or make up part of next winter’s feed plan.

Residuals have been challenging to get right this week from grazing heavier covers, with carryover cows used in some paddocks to remove any remaining feed that the main herds reject.

We are not irrigating yet, but only for the rain we got the last week, we most definitely would be as soils were entering a moisture deficit.

With a breeding start date planned for 25 October, we tail painted the milking herd last Tuesday to monitor heats pre-breeding.

We will record any paint missing as we milk each day, and paint will be topped up. Cows that have not cycled will have their records reviewed, with calving date, calving difficulty, milk recording results and body condition score all considered before any intervention takes place.

If the problem cannot be identified as an environmental issue, fertility treatment will then be considered.

Performance

On the performance side of things, we now have 700 cows milking with 25 left to calve.

We had anticipated 730 to be in the milking herd post calving, but due to a few personality clashes (cup kickers and cows who jumped while on rotary platform) and various ailments, we had to cull a number of cows. The final number is looking likely to be in the region of 720 for the remainder of the season. SCC is now down to 47k which we are satisfied with, and cows are milking 2.23kgs/MS/day. Milk solids is the only measure of production used out here, with protein or butterfat percentages rarely considered. I receive strange looks every time I ask for these details.

This week’s productions translates to 26.5 litres at 3.76% protein and 4.67% fat, but the composition never comes up in conversation on farm, the view is simply grass to milk solids rather than grass to milk.