Grass 10 Featured Farmer - Philip Tyndall
Philip Tyndall is the 2021 Young Grassland Farmer of the Year. He farms with his father John milking 150 cows outside Bunclody in Co. Wexford. The farm is recovering well from drought with growth nearly double the demand. Philip is aiming to get AFC to 1000 KgDM/ha by the end of September.
Update September 20th 2022
Name: Philip Tyndall
Location: Bunclody, Co. Wexford
Enterprise: Dairy
Stocking Rate: 3.6 LU/ha on milking platform
Herd EBI: €169
2021 KgMS/Cow: 556 KgMS/Cow
2021 Annual tonnage: 14.6 T DM/ha
Current Milk Yield - Cow/Day: 17.7 L/cow (1.63KgMS/cow)
Current Grazing Management
On a 45-day rotation to hold demand low and allow average farm cover to build. I’m aiming to get farm cover to around 1,000 KgDM/ha by the start of closing rotation on 5th October. I have been feeding 6kgDM grass, 6kgDM silage and 6kg meal for the last week they were getting more supplement before this. I’m planning on increasing grass by 2kgDM for the next few weeks to reduce silage in the diet to ensure they are grazing what’s in front of them. They’re grazing covers of 1,000 KgDM/ha. I’m planning on holding stocking rate for another month because we have enough silage in the yard. It would be a different story if we didn’t have the silage. I aim to house cows fully from mid-Nov with an average farm cover of 600 KgDM/ha to be at 750 KgDM/ha on 1st December.
Average Farm Cover (AFC): 703 KgDM/ha
Growth: 57 KgDM/ha/day
Demand: 32 KgDM/ha/day
Diet: 6 KgDM Grass + 6 Kg Meal + 6 KgDM Silage
Pre-Grazing Yield: 1000-1200 KgDM/ha
Annual Tonnage: 10.4 T DM/ha (down 1.7 T DM on 2021)
Nutrient Management
211 Kg N/ha chemical Nitrogen spread to date. Grass growth is back on last year but this is due to very dry conditions in late summer.
All the slurry has been spread on silage ground earlier in the year. We focused strongly on this, this year. We applied soiled water to paddocks about two weeks ago and we spread 80 T lime on paddocks after this.
We will follow clover paddocks with 2,500 gal/ac with the remaining soiled water
Philip is hosting a farm walk next week. Get more information on the farm walk here
