Peak milk cheque meets new costs

Milk production went well for July, with 167,000 litres delivered at 4.55% fat and 3.85% protein. The cows continue to milk well, with the most recent analysis showing the herd delivering 17 litres at 4.5% fat and 3.98% protein (1.5kg MS/cow) with a cell count of 138,000 cells/ml.

Comparing this year’s July figures for the farm to last year shows the fat percentage is exactly the same, while the protein percentage has lifted from 3.79% to 3.84% on average for July.

The milk cheque delivered last week was for June and the volume paid was for 242,700 litres at 4.48% fat and 3.74% protein. The milk statement also showed that the average solids for all Glanbia suppliers was 3.91% fat and 3.42% protein. The Glanbia average payout was 34.97c/litre (€4.63/kg MS), so the better milk solids was worth about 2.2c/l to the Kilkenny farm for June.

The net milk price received this year was 36.60c/l excluding VAT, which came to 38.57c/l including VAT. The farm has about 25% of annual supply in four of the Glanbia Fixed Milk schemes. For June, they all returned a lower value than the open market manufacturing price – you win some years, you lose in others. The fixed schemes varied from 32.7 to 35.68c/l, while the manufacturing price for June came in at 37.17c/l.

Comparing with last year, the June milk price ex-VAT we received was 25.35c/l – a difference of 11.25c/l. That means for June supply the difference in milk price was worth over €900 per day in the value of the extra output – what a difference a year makes.

Milk volumes sold are up but the farm is milking about 15 extra cows. We sold 215,000 litres in June 2016 compared to 242,000 this year, so the June 2017 milk cheque comes to €92,950. To date, we have fed about 130kg of meal per cow so the majority of the milk is from grazed grass.

Personnel

Tom Lyng is finishing up with us after seven years working on the farm and is moving on to bigger and better challenges. We have been very lucky to have this proud Kilkenny man on our team for the last number of years and his service to the business and his help with farmers down through the years has left the industry in a better place.

Eoin Finneran is taking up the manager’s position after working with Tom for the last three years.

Our relatively new recruit from Laois, James Keegan, hurt himself on the field of play and his knee damage is such that he will be out of work for three to four months.

Young Laois ag graduate Aodhan Brennan has joined the team for the last number of months and without him the summer would have been very difficult.

Stock

We had a discussion at the most recent management meeting about fallout from the herd and stock requirements. Last year, we had 365 to calve down and we are milking 345 now (July), so effectively 20 cows that were in-calf last December have fallen out of the system.

Nine culls went a few weeks ago and there are five more culls dried off in a paddock on their own now – the rest were a mix of deaths or problems while calving, etc. Six per cent (20 from 365) might seem high – it is – but it’s real. There is no place to hide – we have repeated this figure most years and it was higher in years when sorting out the high somatic cell count.

Large herds have big fallout because the individual attention is not the same as is possible with herds less than 100 cows – it’s not neglect. For next year (2018 onwards), the figures are such that we have 337 cows bred and 95 maiden heifers. Assuming 10% not in-calf for the cows it means we will have 33 cows and maybe five maiden heifers not in-calf (5%) – that’s 38 not in-calf from 432.

On top of this, by the end of lactation there will probably be another few cows that need to be culled for one reason or the other (legs, udders, late calvers, SCC, etc). If we said another 20 cows (another 5% to 6%) on top of the not-in-calf cows it would leave about 374 to calve down next spring. We will do well to make these figures and that is with no problems coming in that we are unaware of. In total over the year, that’s about a 20% replacement rate. Imagine if we had a higher not-in-calf rate.

We still have a team of vasectomised bulls with the cows and a team of clean-up bulls with the heifers. These all need to be sold from the farm as we think about autumn grass build-up. We are contract-rearing, so paying for heifers not in-calf or clean-up bulls is not good business.

When I walked into the herd this week, you would be forgiven for thinking there were more cows not in-calf than 10% – and maybe there will be. There were two cows in the crush for AI and when I went out to the milkers the vasectomised bulls were interested in at least another three cows coming into heat. That’s a good number of cows not in-calf over two days.

Thankfully there were not that many in the following number of days. Remember our procedure is vasectomised bulls and 100% AI for the whole season.

Grass and nitrogen

Getting to a crucial part of the year for building grass and we have two blanket rounds of nitrogen to spread. Twenty units will go out in the next week and 20 will go out at the end of August. To date, we have close to 200kg/ha spread. We cut the last of the surplus grass last Friday/Saturday and it means we now have over 900 round bales and a pit of silage with 130t of dry matter in it. So in summary, we have north of 300t of winter feed in stock.

One of the paddocks (paddock 14) is very bad for weeds but it is still growing as much as some of the other paddocks. The decision is to hold on reseeding for the moment and put it on the list for next spring.

Animal health

It’s coming up to the time of year for Salmonella vaccination but we will wait until we know which cows are not in-calf before completing the job.

The annual herd test is coming up in mid-August and again we need to take a blood sample for Johne’s screening from the herd, so we need to make sure this happens before the annual test.

With the change of staff, our lameness experts are gone also so we need to buy in that expertise and not get back to where we were in the past, allowing numbers build up before ringing for help.

The herd has been on 13-times-a-week milking (no Sunday evening) since mid-June. They are milked at 7.30am on Sunday morning and importantly given a full paddock of grass for the day – enough grass for 24 to 30 hours. They are milked at 6.30 on Monday morning and while milking takes a little longer, the time off is appreciated.

Topless cubicles

Work has just started on the new development to install 256 topless cubicles on two-thirds of the woodchip stand-off pad. The project went through planning and just this week the contractors have moved in to level up the site.

The existing feed faces will be used and three new scraper channels will be installed in between double rows of cubicles. The projected total cost including miscellaneous costs for 256 cubicles comes to approximately €115,000 (€450/cubicle place). We are eight years into a 15-year lease, so the landowners are financing 60% while the farm is financing the balance.

Financial projections show the farm should have surplus cash this year – maybe in the order of €50,000 to €60,000 after all costs and accounting for capital expenditure.

The updated projected profit for the year is €115,000 but we have already spent the guts of €20,000 on a few bits and pieces (tractor, lameness crate, etc) and now the spend on the winter accomadation is just starting.