Dry weather for the last two weeks has allowed Daniel and Amy O’Donnell get the freshly calved cows out to grass on their elevated farm near Cappoquin, Co Waterford. The first two weeks of February during the very wet weather were more challenging but Daniel still managed to get grazed grass into cows since they calved.

He said: “We managed in early February because there were only small numbers of cows calved so it is easier to manage grazing and we had little choice because silage was disappearing and slurry tanks were full. Calved cows were better off outside grazing.”

Slurry storage

Adequate slurry storage is a problem for Daniel on this expanding dairy farm which is moving from milking 50 to 100 cows, but he is adamant that he will build a new slurry tank this year. He said: “The wet autumn limited spreading opportunities and the wet start to 2013 meant slurry tanks were filling up very quickly. We were forced to spread some slurry in January, we had no choice.”

When I talked to Daniel this week, he had the contractors in spreading slurry again. He was delighted because they were even able to spread slurry on some of the wetter paddocks that would usually be too wet to travel on. He said: “It’s a big relief to get this slurry out because there is nothing worse than watching slurry come up through the slats when the cows are in.”

Daniel has been grazing off the heavier paddocks for the last number of weeks while the weather has been dry. This was allowing him coat 25 acres with slurry this week. He said: “Even though the heavier paddocks don’t have much grass (a cover of 600kg to 700kg), I said it was better to get them grazed off when I could. I have very good covers of grass on the drier paddocks that will be grazed in late March (1,000kg plus).”

Previously, Daniel would have talked about developing the expanding farm from cashflow rather than borrowings but his advisers suggest that it would be more efficient from a taxation point of view and less risky from a cashflow stand point if he took out a small loan to cover building the slatted tank. Daniel will research this more before he makes a final decision but he is hopeful of completing the job this year.

Contract rearing

The other big system change Daniel is developing for 2013 is the idea of contract rearing the bulling heifers. For the last two winters, Daniel has had the maiden heifers out on B&B for the winter. Last year, they left in November and came home in March but bigger numbers of replacements put the system under big pressure in terms of stocking rate.

Daniel said: “The heifers have been killing me for the last few years. Five years ago, we would work away fine with smaller numbers and better weather. Last year, we had over 40 heifers and the rain never stopped here. We bulled the weanling heifers indoors last year due to the wet weather but I’m contemplating trying to keep them away from home altogether this year.”

Current performance

After four weeks of calving, Daniel has 73 calved and he is hoping to milk approximately 90 cows this year. Daniel has 103 animals to calve down altogether, so he has about 30 left to calve. He will sell some calved cows and a few will be culled for various reasons before the spring is finished.

He is feeding 4kg of meal per cow/day and one bale of silage to the milking cows. This means that the diet at the moment is approximately 2kg to 3kg of grass silage dry matter, 4kg of meal and 7kg to 8kg of grazed grass. No bull calves have been sold yet but Daniel is hoping to get to the mart this week with some Jersey cross and Friesian bull calves. He has 25 AI bred heifer calves already. Daniel is feeding the calves indoors on five litres of whole milk per calf per day and they also have access to meal.

Rainfall amounts have been high so far this year. He recorded 103mm for January and approximately 83mm for February (Figure 1).

The first of the nitrogen went out last Thursday. Daniel spread a bag and a half of Pasture Sward per acre (40 units of nitrogen). Daniel’s soil phosphorus and potassium levels are very low, so he is confident that he will get a better response to the compound fertilizer rather than spreading straight nitrogen.

Soil fertility results show over 70% of Daniel’s farm is in phosphorus (P) index one and two. Almost 80% of paddocks came back index one and two for potassium (K). Daniel can’t expect the majority of paddocks to grow large amounts of grass (over 15 tonnes), which is required to carry 100 cows on his 36.5ha milking platform. He has moved from a stocking rate of 2.1 cows/ha in 2011 to 2.24 cows/ha in 2012 and, if he milks 95 cows this year, it would take his grazing platform stocking rate to 2.6 cows/ha.

Winter review

The grazing year finished prematurely at the end of October but this left plenty of grass for spring grazing. Milking cows were dried off on 20 November 2012.

Grass silage was supplemented with meal to stretch silage quantities and improve the quality of the winter diet.

Approximately 110kg of meal was fed per cow during the dry period in December and January. Thin cows got ad-lib silage and 4kg of meal and the rest got 2kg of meal with the silage.

The in-calf heifers got silage and 3kg of meal with a half kilo of soyabean meal on top.

Seven cull cows (not in calf) were sold for €800 per cow in December.

Daniel and Amy O’Donnell farm near Cappoquin on the Tipp/Waterford border. They farm a 37ha milking block with 73 calved and 30 left to calve. This is one of two commercial farms in the Greenfield Dairy Project. They aim to learn the lessons of dairy farm expansion moving from 60 to 100 milking cows before quota brakes are released.

Summer rains wash out 2012 profits

In 2012, June, July and August rainfall was almost twice normal levels with 250mm (10 inches) of rain in June alone. The net effect of this is that Daniel had to buy grass silage and more concentrate as cows were indoors for 30 days extra during the milking year rather than outside grazing. This reduced milk produced and the amount of grass grown and utilised on his farm was well down (nine tonnes in 2012 v 11.5 tonnes in 2011).

Daniel milked 81 cows for most of 2012 and is planning on milking over 90 cows in 2013.

Since late 2009, he has invested over €50,000 on the farm, mostly in drainage and reseeding.

Daniel has an out-farm of 27 acres, which is mainly used for rearing replacements but, in a wet year like 2012, he gets very little return from it. In 2007, Daniel was milking 52 cows and keeping approximately 14 replacements. This year, he is planning to milk 90 cows and keep 25 replacement heifers.

IN BRIEF

Slurry spreading possible on the wetter paddocks this week that have been grazed off with the milkers over the last three weeks.

Plans to build a new slatted slurry tank are being developed.

Plans to contract rear the replacement heifers full time are also being developed. Up to now, they have just been on B&B for the winter period.

In the first four weeks, 73 cows have calved with a plan to milk over 90 cows in 2013.