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Significant investment has been ploughed into the grazing block, with results filtering into milk sales on the farm this year.
Milk output is up on average 300 litres per day on the same period last year.
The net impact of this is an extra €9,500 in farm output based on just increased milk sales from February to June, and not factoring in the improved price.
From a cost perspective, meal feeding level has stayed similar to last year and grass growth has increased.
More bag fertiliser has been purchased, and David has invested cash reserves and some borrowed money into land improvement which ultimately has increased the cost base for the business.
The improved land will allow David to carry more stock and subsequently increase farm output which will help cover the cost of the farm improvement.
The farm has a grazing block of 38ha – the most critical resource on the farm. Maximising its performance in terms of grass growth and stocking rate ultimately determines profitability.
Last year, this platform had an average growth of 9.5t DM/ha. Stocking rate on the platform currently is 2.91 cows/ha with an out block used for replacement heifers and silage.
With the improvement work and reseeds coming on line now the stocking rate can be pushed up to around 3.2 cows/ha next year using replacements to grow the herd and some stock purchases.
The cow type on the farm is black and white Holstein Friesian with the breeding policy focused on holding herd milk output, while at the same time increasing milk solids and improving the fertility performance of the herd.
High-EBI sires have been selected with a sire FJM which has been sexed used on heifers, and FR2032 and FR2005 mainly used on the milking herd.
All the sires are delivering over 25kg of solids and have positive milk sub index values. The fertility sub index for all sires is above €100. Based on projected milk solids, this will take total solids per ha to 1,370kg/ha.
David Brady Stradone, Co Cavan
The new reseeds have now been grazed by the milking herd. Ideal conditions allowed the cows to move in with a pre-grazing cover of 1,600kg.
As expected, milk solids increased on the reseed and litres held for nine days on the reseeded area. I topped up the reseed paddocks with a bag of 18-6-12 last week.
I have 6ac on the grazing block which has been fully drained with gravel tunnels and collector drains.
This increased the cost of the job by about €1,500 per acre. This area has been reseeded and fenced.
Grass varieties used are 30% Tetraploid and 70% Diploid with Abergain, Aberchoice and Abermagic the varieties used. We’ll wait and see how the drains work.
So far this year, grass growth has been fairly level on the farm, with no very high peak in growth.
The highest growth recorded so far has been 85 kg/day and as a result of this grass has been easier to manage, giving me a good chance to keep top-quality grass ahead of the herd.
Pre-grazing cover has been getting heavy over the past week, so I have skipped 4.5ha of paddocks, which is now out for silage and target pre-grazing cover is 1,400kg DM/ha.
The farm has grown more this year as I have spread more bag nitrogen but also the soil phosphorus and potassium have improved.
The 6.5ha reseeded returned to the grazing rotation in early July. Cover per cow is high at 170kg with some paddocks out for silage.
Breeding
Breeding started this year on 5 May for both the cows and heifers. This year, I have 23 replacement heifers which went for AI using sexed sires for the first service and then the stock bull moved in after that.
Heifers have been bred on visual heat for 10 days, and any not served got prostaglandin and served on visual heat.
Some 95% of the heifers submitted for AI and I have a stock bull currently with the group.
We submitted 82% of the milking herd in the first four weeks to AI.
I have no scan results yet, but based on return rates in the main herd and heifers, breeding has gone well this year.
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