Dairy management: weather, slurry and feeding

Weather

They say that the best farmers panic slowly. It’s hard to take positives from a wet month, but; it’s still only February, daylight hours are increasing, there is a lot of grass on farms, cows are milking well and March usually brings good drying weather. While the short-term forecast is poor, the weather will change and farmers need to be in a position to react when it does. Those on dry land should continue to monitor field conditions and get cows out as soon as is practical.

Slurry

Heavy rain has prevented slurry from being spread on many farms. Those in Zone A that were able to get slurry out early did so in good conditions, but things have deteriorated since. Slurry tanks are now full or nearly full on a lot of farms. The first port of call should be to transfer slurry to tanks with capacity and wait for field conditions to improve before spreading.

If all tanks on the farm are full, you have a bigger problem. There are a number of options. None are ideal, but something has to be done. The first is to spread a small quantity of slurry during a window of opportunity. Spread small quantities at a low rate on dry land that is situated away from rivers, streams and wells. Umbilical spreading machines are lighter on land than heavy slurry spreaders, so this is worth keeping in mind. Slurry spreaders without trailing shoes or dribble bars are also lighter on land. Big wheels make a huge difference.

Another option is to transfer slurry to a farmer that has spare capacity. There are no technical issues with this, provided that the farmer taking the slurry is not in a nitrates derogation and receiving the slurry won’t push him or her into a derogation. Farmers with more than 170kg of organic N/ha (more than two livestock units/ha) should be in a derogation.

Feed

With many herds housed full-time, feed quantity and quality is an issue. No feed is as good as spring grass, but where land won’t carry animals they’ll have to be fed in the shed. The value of having a bank of really good quality silage comes into its own now. Milking cow intakes are still low, but they will be even lower if middling to poor silage is being fed or when silage at the feed face is stale.

You need cows to eat as much high-quality feed as possible, otherwise negative energy balance will be more pronounced and cows will lose body condition.

In terms of meal, four to five kilos of meal in the parlour is the most I would feed. On average, intakes in spring calving herds are still low at about 12 to 14kgDM/cow/day in total. Feeding high levels of meal could sicken cows, especially if it’s above 40% of the total diet.

Some farmers are asking about alternative feeds. Beet is fairly freely available in the south and east. It’s a good high energy feed but it’s very low in protein and it’s very difficult to feed without specialist machinery. The issue with buying in alternative feeds is that you need to buy a certain quantity at once and farmers are often left having to use this up after the weather changes and cows could be out grazing.

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