Top five tips for February

As part of the Teagasc Dairy Advisor newsletter, Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer, Dr. Joe Patton shared his top five tips for February. Read them here:

1). Achieve at least one grazing every day

Spring grass is the best-quality forage available on farm. Cows will benefit from increased total animal dry matter intake, increased energy, and protein density of the diet. The farm business will benefit from improved animal performance and lower feed costs. Aim to get cows out for least one bout of grazing per day, two where conditions and grass budgets allow. On-off grazing may be required during difficult weather or on heavy soils.

2). Consider once-a-day (OAD) milking in February

For some farms the opportunity is there to reduce the workload by milking OAD for the first couple of weeks of the calving season. Teagasc research shows annual milk yield was reduced by only 2% for herds that milked OAD for four weeks, compared to those that milked twice a day (i.e., only the earliest calved cows were a full four weeks on OAD) for the entire lactation. This frees up time for cow/calf care in a busy period. The practice is not recommended for herds with an annual somatic cell count (SCC) of higher than 200,000 cells/ml.

3). Include slurry as part of your spring fertiliser plans

Slurry contains six units of nitrogen (N), five units of phosphorus (P), and 30 units of potassium (K) per 1,000 gallons. It is a valuable nutrient source on farm. Slurry should be targeted to parts of the farm most in need, i.e., silage ground and low P and K index paddocks. Manage slurry applications to ensure it is spread during the appropriate conditions and that no more than 2,500 gallons/acre are applied in each application. Minimise risk of loss to watercourses.

4). Test every batch of colostrum

You can quickly and easily measure colostrum quality by using a Brix refractometer – a reading of 22% or more indicates good quality colostrum. Colostrum quality declines if first milking is delayed more than six hours, so it is best to milk the cow soon after calving, if possible. Get at least 3L of high-quality colostrum fed in the first two hours after birth. Do not keep low-quality colostrum for freezing.

5). Run a fresh cow group in February

Calving is a hectic time on dairy farms. With workload and fatigue comes greater risk of mistakes. A good way to cut down on problems in the parlour is to keep all cows that are still out of the tank in a separate group. It may sound like extra complication but the benefits are: i) less risk of antibiotics in the tank; ii) the fresh group can be milked last so milking the main group is much simpler; iii) it’s easier to collect transition milk; and, iv) freshly calved cows get a couple of extra days to recover in a small group. Once cows are settled and back in the tank (seventh milking) they join the main herd. Use tail tape (different colour to treated cows) to mark the cows in the fresh group.

For more information, read the Teagasc Dairy Advisory newsletter for February here.