Things have been going really well on the farm here. The first-cut silage of 70ha was made in excellent conditions and will be top-quality silage that will be fed out to the cows during calving next spring. The weather for the whole month of November was really good with rain only for about four or five days. As a result of this, grass growth has slowed down slightly and meal has been increased from 1kg to 3kg per cow to increase the rotation lenght by about two to three days to give covers a chance to build up in front of the cows.
Things have been going really well on the farm here. The first-cut silage of 70ha was made in excellent conditions and will be top-quality silage that will be fed out to the cows during calving next spring.
The weather for the whole month of November was really good with rain only for about four or five days. As a result of this, grass growth has slowed down slightly and meal has been increased from 1kg to 3kg per cow to increase the rotation lenght by about two to three days to give covers a chance to build up in front of the cows.
Brian Desmond milking in the rotary parlour.
The farm is walked weekly and the average farm cover is about 2,200kgDM/ha, which in an Irish context would be about 700kgDM/ha.
The pre-grazing yield is about 2,600kgDM/ha (1,100kgDM/ha available) which is about 100-150kg behind where we would like it to be.
Cows
Cows are performing well producing 24l/day with fat at 4.80% and protein at 3.70% and SCC is 155k.
In the last week, all calves that were still getting milk replacer were weighed and everything is now over 100kg so they are now all weaned off milk.
Two weeks ago, all the Fresian bull calves and beef calves left the farm to be reared on a beef unit.
Last week, all the Wagyu calves were drenched for worms and vaccinated for blackleg. They left the farm to be reared on a different out block.
Vaccinated
This week all the fresian heifers – 250 of them in total – were put into one group, drenched and vaccinated and are heading off to their contract-rearing block.
With all 390 calves off the farm now, this will give the farm a chance to build up a nice cover of grass once again and will reduce demand, which the farm manager now hopes once grass growth is back on track to close up another 50ha to 60ha of second-cut silage to meet all winter feed requirements.
The hope is to not have to buy in any extra feed such as maize and hay which was bought during a prolonged drought which was experienced this time last season.
Artificial insemination
The AI lasted six weeks on this farm. Fresian AI was used for five weeks and Hereford AI used for one week. Twenty-eight bulls came on to the farm on 11 November and were put with the cows on 14 November.
They will be with the herds for about six weeks which will complete the 12-week breeding season. There are 10 bulls with the first herd of 350 cows and 10 bulls with the second herd of 350 cows and six bulls with the third herd of 210 cows and two bulls with the "peni" group of cows (cows whose milk is not being sold due to antibiotic treatments, etc). There are typically 10 cows in this herd.
Bulls
This brings the total number of cows to 920 being milked for this season. What the manager has decided to do is rotate bulls every three days, so only five bulls at any one time are working in the first and second herds, and three in the third herd. This has worked really well as the bulls are never really stressed out or worn out and are really easy to work with.
The bulls are split from the herd before milkings as the manager does not want them coming on the rotary parlour. All the bulls are 15-month-old Fresians and all will be slaughtered at the end of the season.
Routine
The daily routine is now quite handy – cups on at 5am, with AI now complete and bulls in the herd things have gotten much easier.
Morning milking is completed and washed up by 10am now, so the day generally consists of tidying up the farm, maintainance of fences and fencing posts, trimming weeds, moving calves to fresh grass and power-washing the rotary once a week.
Evening milking is from 2-5pm and the day is finished at 5.15pm with about two hours off between breakfast and lunch during the day.
Experience
I will be finishing my time working here shortly. I really enjoyed the overall experience of dairy farming in New Zealand it was an eye-opening experience and it will be something I will never forget. I was really lucky with the farm I was placed on as it was a great environment to learn in and huge credit must be given to the manager and the team in place for running it really well and for welcoming me into the team. I got on extremely well with everybody and have made friends for life with them.
Brian Desmond was one of two winners of the Irish Farmers Journal-sponsored Stephen Cullinane Scholarship. He spent six months working on a 920-cow farm for Landcorp near Taupo, New Zealand. Read more
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