Alan Kyle, Omagh

DEAR SIR: At the open day at AFBI last week, Dr Sinclair Mayne made reference to the fact that as yields have increased in NI, milk from forage has gone in the opposite direction.

In my opinion, the chief offender in the reducing “milk-from-forage” problem is CAFRE itself. They have pitched recommended per-cow yields at 7,000 litres for spring-calvers and 9,000 litres for autumn-calvers. These levels are far too high (probably by at least 2,000 litres a year). Farmers have found that, to achieve these yields, they have to feed up to 2.5t of meal to spring-calvers and 4t to the autumn-calvers. Not much wonder milk-from-forage is at an all-time low.

I think far too much attention is given to yield per cow, which has very little bearing on profitability.

I have often spoken to the dairy experts at Greenmount, trying to persuade them to establish an ultra-low-cost herd to see what profit can be achieved from grass alone with no meal, instead of striving for higher and higher yields, with ever-reducing milk-from-forage figures.

A number of herds I know, in both the UK and NZ, are giving around 4,000 litres on zero or up to 100kg meal per cow, meaning 4,000 litres from forage. They are still making money, which cannot be said for the 7,000- or 9,000-litre herds. Another spin-off, of course, would be less milk flooding the market.

I often quote a figure of 8,000 litres from 200kg concentrates, and later admit that this is from every two cows. But why not? It must be a lot more profitable than 8,000 litres from one cow on 3.5t to 4t.

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