Michael and Alex McCarthy - Signpost Farmer Update
Michael & Alex McCarthy, Signpost Dairy Farmers, give us their farm update for June.
Our current production is 26 litres/cow/day, @ 3.82% butterfat and 3.49% protein. Cows are delivering over 1.95kg milk solids per day on 4.5kg of meal. SCC is currently 83 which is very satisfactory.
Breeding started on April 27 this year. We had everything submitted in five weeks so we are very happy with breeding 2024 from that perspective. The collars have been a great addition this year to help with heat detection and to identify cows with silent heats.
We will continue artificial insemination (AI) for the cows until approximately July 10. During this period, no stock bull will be released with the cows. This practice is routine for us each year. Cows that receive AI straws on July 10 are expected to calve in mid-April 2025.
Additionally, we have selected 14 suitable heifers for sexed semen. A beef bull is currently with all the heifers to ensure successful mating. We will monitor our progress using the ICBF weekly fertility report to meet our targets.
We have completed our reseeding for 2024 and are pleased with its establishment thus far. We are closely monitoring the timing of our post-emergence spray to maximize its effectiveness. Specifically, we aim to apply the spray when the grass plants have reached the three-leaf stage, and the trifoliate leaf has appeared on the clover plants.
A successful spray is crucial to ensure our fresh grass and clover reseed has the best possible chance of maintaining a low weed burden. Additionally, following our recent discussion group meeting, we are exploring the purchase of low-drift nozzles to replace the current ones on our sprayer.
The most recent grass walk was completed on June 11 — I recorded an average farm cover of 494kg DM/ha with a cover per cow of 148. The growth since the previous walk was 70kg DM/ha per day. In response to the low farm cover and to align with our growth and demand, we have raised the meal feed to 6kg per cow. This adjustment aims to enhance both farm cover and cover per cow.
This reduced growth over the past few weeks is due to the cold wind which has been prevailing and has led to a drying out of the ground. We have corrected some poorer-quality paddocks over the past few weeks and these are coming back nicely now.
We completed our first cut of silage on June 1. We were very happy with the quality and quantity. However, we have very few high-quality bales of silage made off the milking block so far this year due to the reduced growth rates as a result of the harsh weather.
Two-thirds of what was cut has received slurry and two bags of 29-0-14 with sulphur. Where no slurry was applied, three bags of a compound were applied.
A third cut will also be made on parts of the farm that are not easily accessible for grazing, the third cut will hopefully be high-quality bales which can be fed at the shoulders of the year.
On Tuesday, June 18, we hosted a clover workshop called “Let’s talk clover for summer 2024”. The topics discussed included the management of clover in reseeds, nutrient management of clover swards and what is enough clover to allow chemical N reduction.