Milk quota: The milk quota survey results on page 8 this week tell a very clear story. Most of the co-ops are between 5% and 10% over quota, and September supplies have not declined to any extent. In fact, milk supplies are up 8 to 1 0% compared to September last year, which was a good month. This is not news to many dairy farmers as supplies have been exceptionally good since the last quota year started in April. Talking to suppliers, many are aiming to continue milking for as long as they can this autumn given the very good grass supplies and little or no meal supplement. They are then planning to abruptly dry off cows and give them an extended dry period rather than feed meal now on grass to extend the grazing. That’s all fine, but you should be careful on condition score. Difficult grazing conditions on heavy covers of grass (poorer quality) can reduce condition score very quickly, so be watchful. If you are seriously over quota, don’t risk cows becoming very thin, especially February calvers.

Dry cow and sealers: I’ve had a good few discussions with farmers recently on the effective use of dry cow antibiotic tubes and sealers. There is no doubt most of the best milk quality operators use antibiotic tubes to protect cows during the dry period from any infection. Not as many use sealers, but those that do suggest they wouldn’t go away from them. A lot depends on the pressure your cows are under for cubicles. If you have plenty of cubicles and the scraper channels and cubicles are kept clean and limed, then the challenge of infection is low and many top operators are not using sealers. If, on the other hand, you have one and half cows for every cubicle so there is pressure on housing, or if cows are wintered outdoors, then sealers might be a great investment. Some farmers have recently tried sealers on in-calf heifers to try to reduce the amount of mastitis in heifers calving down for the first time. Again the advice is similar. If in-calf heifers are under pressure with housing and the surroundings are not clean enough for heifers bagging down heavily, then you might be advised to insert a sealer four to six weeks prior to calving. The success of this depends on how cleanly you do the job. The last thing you want to do is push dirt up into the heifer’s teat canal causing infection. Review how much mastitis you had in your in-calf heifers shortly after calving last year. If the mastitis level was over 10%, then ask your vet/adviser about potentially using sealers on in-calf heifers. It’s a tricky and time-consuming job, so have it well planned. The best prices I’ve heard for long-acting dry cow tubes and sealers this autumn are coming in around €10 per cow – do a ring around locally to get prices.

Grass and Clover: In last week’s Grass Watch, it was mentioned that clover and grass swards were delivering two litres extra per week over grass-only swards. That should have read two litres per day. By the end of lactation, the cows grazing the clover/grass swards will have delivered close to 50kg of milk solids more than the cows on grass-only swards. Teagasc badly needs to get these type of clover/grass swards onto 20 farms around Ireland with different soil types, locations etc.