Keeping a solid focus on grass-based milk

September has been a busy month for the father and son team of Thompson and Hugh Harbison, with calving getting underway on their 190 cow dairy unit at Aghadowey, Co Derry.

The 2024 calf crop hit the ground on 5 September and by the end of the month, 125 cows had calved down and were back in production. All cows will be calved by December.

Calving two thirds of the herd in three weeks takes a high level of management and requires good infrastructure to be in place to handle the workload.

Last week, Hugh hosted his dairy discussion group and gave an update on calving progress, grazing management and production on farm.

Herd background

At 190 cows, the herd has increased slightly from 180 head milked in 2023 with yields for last year averaging 7,941 litres. Milk from forage is over 3,000 litres/cow.

Increasing milk solids has been a key area of focus and since 2020, butterfat and protein have risen from 4.27% and 3.57% respectively to average 4.67% and 3.65% last year.

As solids increased, litres have dipped, with yields back 270 litres per cow over that four year period or 3.3% across the total herd.

However, total solids have risen 3.4% with the herd averaging 680kg of milk solids per cow.

To facilitate the rise in milk solids, breed type has been transitioning towards a cow optimally suited for grass -based dairy systems.

Holstein genetics are still used to generate herd replacements.

There is also a Norwegian Red and Jersey breed influence to control mature cow weight, improve fertility and extend production life.

Output

As the new production year gets up and running, milk quality averaged 4.87% butterfat and 3.97% protein in September.

There was some discussion around increasing yields to capitalise on rising milk prices for the upcoming winter.

However, there was agreement that increasing litres does not equate to additional profit and that the current system on farm was delivering for the Harbison family.

Freshly calved cows

September saw an upturn in weather and that allowed fresh calved cows to go to grass with animals grazing by day and night up to last week.

But with litres rising and the feed value in grass on the turn, cows are now grazing by day only and housed after the evening milking.

“Grazing during the day cuts down on the workload and gives us time to keep on top of other jobs. But realistically, cows may only get another week or two at grass,” remarked Hugh.

Cows are currently getting 2kg/head of an 18% protein nut through a diet feeder and a, further 5kg through the parlour. A higher protein nut will be offered once grazing stops.

Third cut silage is being fed overnight with a feed value of 35% dry matter, 72 D-Value, 11.8MJ ME and 11% protein.

Once housed full time, cows will switch to first cut silage which is 28% dry matter, 74 d-value, 12MJ ME and 12% protein.

Second cut silage is 37% dry matter, 75 d-value, 12MJ ME and 13% protein.

Calf rearing

To date, there are 53 dairy bred heifer calves on the ground via sexed semen, three dairy bred bulls, along with 65 Hereford and Angus cross calves.

Calves start off in individual pens when training to feed via a bucket, then move to a purpose built rearing unit with eight large group pens.

Powdered milk is currently fed twice daily in a group feeder along with a pelleted nut, straw and ad-lib access to water.

Reseeding

Despite challenging weather, 20 acres of grass were reseeded across two fields on the grazing platform this summer.

One field was burned off, with grass seed drilled on 30 July.

Lime and slug pellets were also applied, but establishment was poor and grass seed was stitched in again last week.

In contrast, a ploughed reseed completed on 14 August has successfully come through.

Multi-species swards

The farm also has been successfully incorporating multi-species swards on the grazing platform for a number of years and the integration of clover has reduced use of chemical nitrogen.

Herbs such as plantain and chicory have naturally faded out of the oldest multi-species swards, yet the group remarked on the quality of grass and clover swards that remain.

These swards continue to receive just slurry as a fertiliser, and in 2024 yields have exceeded 9t/ha of dry matter.

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