Weather
The last six weeks have put paid to any thoughts of a bumper back end, with cows dropping back in milk faster than expected.
Herds that had to be housed for periods are seeing greater drops in production.
If too much field damage is being done then housing for periods is the best option.
The last thing you want to be doing in autumn is poaching, as fields won’t recover in time for spring grazing.
Big decision
A decision to house is a big one and should really be a last resort, when all other tricks and tools to prevent poaching have been exhausted.
Best policy is to house if you need to, but keep cows out if you can.
Some farmers are keeping cows in at night. If you have sufficient grass, and if it is dry enough to graze during the day, then it doesn’t make sense to house at night.
All you are doing is substituting a good feed (grass) with a poorer-quality and more expensive feed (silage).
Plus, cows will be less interested in cleaning out paddocks by day if their bellies are full of high-fibre silage. Grass dry matter is on the low side.
It was 12% in Moorepark on Monday.
This is definitely at the lower end of where you would like it to be for cows to get full intakes, but grazed grass and 2kg or 3kg of meal or soya hulls/palm kernel is more than sufficient to meet dietary needs.
Silage, while high in dry matter, is lower in protein and energy than grass.
Where cows have to be housed, good-quality bales should be fed first, but remember to keep enough for feeding to milkers next spring.
Slurry
There are only two weeks left to go before the closed period for slurry.
The last day of spreading is Saturday 14 October.
To say that the weather hasn’t been ideal for travelling on land is an understatement, but it is unlikely that the deadline will be put back.
There is no need to panic about slurry just yet as there is still time for the weather to improve sufficiently to get slurry spread.
To improve the ability to travel, more farmers are using contractors to spread with umbilical pipes or tankers with big wheels and low ground pressure tyres.
Often, smaller tankers with small wheels do more damage than bigger ones.
Read more
September milk supply up another 10%
Is the European dairy market reaching 'tipping point'?
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: