Dairy farm management tips for the autumn ahead
John McCabe, Teagasc-Aurivo Joint Programme, tells us that wet weather, milk price and policy are causing a lot of frustration to dairy farmers but we need to continue to think about improving the running of our systems. John provides some management hints for the autumn ahead and into next year.
Silage and Planning better Silage next Year
Having high quality “milking cow silage” is worth a lot at this time of year and also next spring. If you don’t have it, the general response is to feed more meal to offset a major drop in milk. This claws back any perceived savings made from having the harvester roaring around field. Remember, keep some “milking cow silage” for freshly calved cows next spring. How much depends on your own circumstances. If you don’t have it, ask yourself why? In my experience, 1st cuts could be taken a week or 10 days earlier without affecting bulk too much if you can sort your K indexes on the silage ground. A lot of people have to wait for their silage crops to bulk but the crop heads out and becomes dry cow silage before it is deemed heavy enough to fill the yard. If you can sort your K indexes, it’ll give you more confidence to take your silage with a good yield but at a nice leafy stage and a knock on from this is that the regrowths are sped up giving you better flexibility for 2nd cut.
- To begin to rectify, take out your soil samples and target K index 1 and 2 fields with slurry or with some Muriate of Potash (MOP, 0:0:50). MOP is expensive on a per tonne basis but it is more expensive to have low index soils holding you back, and usually a farm will only need a couple of tonnes.
Roadways & Lameness
The last stretch of the cow roadway closest to the parlour is the most important because the cow usually walks across it 4 times in the day (in and out for milking X 2).
When cows are being brought in for milking, they may have stopped before getting into the collecting yard and will need to be followed which adds time and also reduces the cows ability to pick where she puts her feet. Ideally roadways would be seen to when grazing has finished but if you need to - fix the last bit before the parlour now, making sure that you rise up the level of it so the water can get away. Also, a build-up of clay and silt on the sides of road ways traps water on the road which results in puddles and a poor surface. Give some attention to this but don’t take away the ridge if the water is going to go into a watercourse because the sediment and run-off negatively effects water quality.
Grass
Employ usual on-off grazing techniques if wet soil is hampering grazing. The final round of grazing will start soon. Be smart about it. Pick out 3 or 4 fields that suit for early spring grazing and make sure you don’t close them first - ideally graze them from 15th or 20th October to 1st November so that when you go to start grazing next spring, there won’t be a big cover on them. This will allow you to train cows into grazing again, get through area for growing the 2nd round, and allow you to mind the soil when you have lower number of cows calved. These paddocks should have plenty of gaps around the field, be well serviced with roadways, and be on the drier side.
Slurry
The closing date for slurry has been rescheduled from 1st Oct to the 8th Oct. The last day for spreading is the 7th of October. Traditionally people were used to spreading on paddocks as they graze them for the last time in the first half of October. There are less opportunities for that now so have a think about where slurry goes over the next week. Low K index soils need it most but it may be a case of drier fields getting it because of trafficability.
Weanling Heifers
I strongly recommend weighing your weanling heifers and inputting the weights into ICBF. The new “heifer weight profile” is superb. I have been very surprised this year by the number of farms with under-done bunches of heifers. These have a huge impact on the herd. Doing it now gives you plenty of time to sort out animals behind target before next April/May.
Summary:
- MOP or slurry on low K soils
- Fix roadways
- Graze February paddocks from 20th Oct-31st Oct
- Weigh weanling heifers and offer meal to underweight heifers