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Having elected to do the building work for the new parlour and collecting yard ourselves, we are finding progress slow, particularly now all the cattle are housed and a full winter work schedule is under way. The main problem is that in concentrating on the building works, we have taken our eye off the ball with our herd.
We started feeding big bale silage while the cows were still at grass, and opened the clamp once they were housed. Unfortunately, we were not quick enough to spot poor performance on the winter ration. Silage intakes were poor, creating poor rumen fill. The autumn calvers never peaked very well and cows did not come bulling strongly. After investigation, it appears the silage is acetic and I’m not alone in this as several other farms are starting to admit they have the same problem. Looking back at the grass analyses in the summer, it seems there were low sugar values. Also some was made wet, and using silage additive on those bits hasn’t worked.
We are now feeding a ration of treacle, alkacarb, caustic wheat and silage, and trying to mix it without a feed waggon has added to the load. It wasn’t until I listened to the other end of the table and put in chopped straw that we really saw an improvement. I suppose after forty years of marriage, she’s learned something.
When I was 20 my father was very ignorant, but by the time I reached 30, I was amazed how much he’d learnt
It reminds me of the story of the young farmer who told his friend, “When I was 20 my father was very ignorant, but by the time I reached 30, I was amazed how much he’d learnt.“
It appears we have arrested crashing yields and had some uplift, but it is debatable as to whether the saving on the building works outweighs the loss on herd performance. We will probably find that a proportion of the autumn calvers will move to spring calvers due to poor fertility. Roll on turnout.
I was going to out-winter the in-calf and bulling heifers, as, on a recent trip to Harper Adams College, they showed persuasive research of the performance of their wintered heifers equalling the performance of their housed ones. We had a dry field with a heap of wrapped silage bales in the corner and the system worked quite well for six weeks, until the heavy frosts in November froze the heifers’ water supply (unbeknown to me), and they broke through the electric fence and appeared at the buildings, so I took the easy option and housed them. This meant the milking herd had to move from the choice of loose housing or cubicles to cubicles only. Overcrowding caused two cases of e coli mastitis. Am I tempting fate to say things have settled down so far?
Let’s hope the promises of better times in 2017 are fulfilled.
English dairy farmer Joe Collingborn farms in north Wiltshire. A regular visitor to our shores, he writes about his experience trying to bring together the best of Irish grass-feeding and British dairy.
To read more from Joe click here.
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