Clonakilty Agricultural College Dairy Update Jan/Feb 2022
Calving commenced earlier than expected in January on the Clonakilty Agricultural College Dairy farm. James Daunt, Dairy teacher, has the first update of 2022 with the latest on what has happened on the dairy enterprise so far this year with calving, milk results and grassland management
Calving 2022
Calving was due to start on the 26th of January, but calving started on Tuesday 11th January, and we have 120 cows calved on the farm so far. Cows are kept inside for four days after calving and are then let out for grazing. We have continued to give cows over 4th lactation a calcium bolus after calving to avoid milk fever issues, and we’ve had only two cases so far, thankfully.
Current milk results
The current milk results are as follows:
- Butterfat 4.46%
- Protein 3.50%
- Lactose 4.88%
- SCC 118,000
- TBC 21,000
Cows are getting 4kg of a 16% crude protein concentrate per day,and this will be reduced to 3kg from next week onwards.
Grassland Management
So far, 36% of the grazing area has had slurry applied through the low emission slurry spreading method, and protected urea has been spread on 55% of the farm at a rate of 29 kg per hectare which is 23 units per acre. Growth has been 11-12 Kg/DM/Ha per day from the start of February. From early December to January the farm grew 10 kg/DM/ha per day which is far higher than the average for the last few years.
The current farm cover is 1350 kg/DM/Ha, which is very high, and we have 14% of the farm grazed at this moment. Grazing conditions have been difficult, so we have been using an on/off grazing approach.
Thank you for tuning in for this update on the dairy unit in Clonakilty Agricultural College.
More on Clonakilty Agricultural College Farm here