Micheal O’Sullivan is working with John McNamara in Knockainey in Co Limerick and after a busy week last week he is hoping the coming week will be a bit quieter. Silage was cut on this farm last Monday and Tuesday so between this, slurry and breeding both Micheal and John were busy.

Growth rate was recorded at 82kg per day for the last seven days so Micheal says he decided to skip over more paddocks this week and set the average farm cover at 125kg per cow. He does agree that this is on the low side but says that the farm is growing really well at the minute and that having cut the silage the demand has dropped to 60kg so average farm cover will rise fast in the next week.

Cows are milking 1.81kg of milk solids per day, with no concentrate being fed. Bulling activity has been incredibly high, with 72% of the herd inseminated after 13 days of AI.

On Barry Reilly’s host farm in Virginia, Co Cavan growth rate for the six days up to last Thursday was 58kg per day. This is slightly below demand of 61kg per day but Barry is happy enough with average farm cover at 148kg/cow.

No meal is being fed. As there are no feeders in the parlours Barry and Patrick, the host farmer are supplementing the cows with magnesium through the water. To feed meal, it must be fed in the yard or out the field with a meal bucket and auger but Barry says this adds about half an hour or more to the day and some of the meal gets wasted. Cows are milking 1.85kg milk solids per day.

Barry was busy last week spreading fertiliser. He topped up the silage ground with 40 units of nitrogen. So far this year this ground would have got 110 units of nitrogen but was grazed twice in February and again in April so he feels over 50% of this nitrogen will have been used up he decided to top up with 40 more units to keep the grass growing before cutting in three weeks’ time. Barry also spread super phosate (16%P) on the low phosphorus index fields.

The big job for the week ahead is reseeding with 10 acres in the process of being reseeded. Barry says it’s a battle against the showers trying to get the work done but hopefully should have the seeds in in the next day or so. They sprayed off the field and gave it two runs of a disc harrow with a chain harrow on the back. See picture two above. Both Barry and Patrick are toying with the idea of rolling before sowing but Barry hopes to get away with just one rolling after sowing.

Down in Waterford, Ciaran Fogarty is battling the cold showers which have reduced growth rates down to 56kg per day. With a demand of 74kg per day Ciaran is hoping that conditions pick up soon before farm cover drops too low.

Currently, average farm cover is at a comfortable 180kg per cow but Ciaran sees a big hole coming in the wedge and is worried that more meal will have to be fed in the coming weeks. For the moment, the herd are on 0.5kg of meal per day and are milking 1.88kg milk solids per cow per day.

Ciaran and farm owner Adrian had an outbreak of coccidiosis in the middle bunch of calves last week. They brought these calves back into an open shed and dosed them twice with Vecoxan and this seems to be working, Ciaran says. “They were miserable out in the field so we brought them in to give them some TLC, they’re on meal, hay and straw and we’ll be turning them back out shortly.

The other health problem encountered this week was with somatic cell count (SCC). As Ciaran does most of the milking, he was very disappointed to see SCC rise to 135 from its steady base of 70 so after getting the milk sample results back he California Milk Tested (CMT) any cow over 800,000 cells and treated accordingly.

Ciaran and Adrian are keeping a close eye on the weather forecast for a window to get the silage cut. Ciaran thinks the best chance of the week will be on Thursday and Friday. Adrian is hoping it will be cut before then because Ciaran is on course days in Moorepark on Thursday and Friday so won’t be around to help cover the pit!

The Professional Diploma is Dairy Farm Management is a two year follow on course spent primarily on farms. Students of the course get hands on experience of managing dairy farms in Ireland and New Zealand and spend on average two days per month doing course work in Moorepark.