Growth rate at Greenfield Farm in Kilkenny was recorded at 25kg per day this week, which was very good for the time of year.

Hopefully this will provide the basis of the feed for early calving cows next February.

The farm had a growth rate of 6kg per day three weeks ago. However, since then there has been two weeks of growth rate over 20kg per day.

Put that 20kg per day over the 120ha farm and it’s 2.4t of feed accumulating every day. Multiply that by 14 days and the farm has grown over 33t of feed in the last two weeks.

At the moment, the cows are getting grass silage at the feed face and 5kg of meal per head with a taste of grass when conditions allow.

The last milk test (12 November, before cows dried off) shows a result of about 1.45kg of milk solids per cow (14.5kg per cow at 4.48% protein, down from 4.59%, 5.31% fat down from 5.52%).

The latest cell count is at 212 SCC, 13 TBC and 4.75% lactose. All the percentages slipped a little in the week as more silage creeps into the diet.

Dairy Day

Remember DairyDay in Punchestown is on this coming Tuesday 20 November, with doors open at 9am.

There is a full programme of events planned so you can choose between three different stages covering different topics or just move around between the 65 exhibitors.

One stage will cover topics of interest outside the farm gate such as adding value to milk, nutritional benefits of dairy products, milk price outlook for the next 12 months, and how dairy products are sold on the global market.

The other two stages will feature topics such as calf health and welfare, tips to consider if building a calf house, optimum stocking rates if growing your herd, using no antibiotics in your dairy herd, and how to design the perfect handling unit among many more topics. See you there.

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Wet start to November in Kilkenny