Delaying calving date, growing more grass and reducing the amount of meal being fed are some of the tactics being employed to improve the performance of the Kildalton College dairy herd. The herd has a median calving date of 24 January. This is artificially early to provide training for the students, but it comes at a cost.
Over 800kg of meal was fed per cow last year, and half a tonne of silage dry matter per cow was purchased in to make up for the winter shortfall. Average grass growth is 13.5t and just under half of the farm is at soil index one and two. On the plus side, fertility performance is good, with 87% of the herd calving in the first six weeks and an empty rate of 11% after 12 weeks of breeding.
After the high milk price in 2017, net profit per hectare – including full labour costs – was €860/ha. This is behind the top 10% of farmers on Profit Monitor at €1,032/ha and well behind the Teagasc target of €2,500/ha at 29c/l milk price.
The overall stocking rate is high at 3.1 livestock units/ha, which works out at 2.3 cows/ha and 0.8 livestock units of youngstock/ha. Extra youngstock are kept for teaching purposes. The herd EBI in Kildalton is €158/cow.
Plan
The herd in Kildalton is part of the Teagasc/Glanbia Open Source sustainability programme and there is a three-year plan in place to improve the performance of the farm. The key points in the three-year plan are to:
As part of the programme, the farm is measuring its carbon footprint. Last year, the farm emitted 0.99kg of CO2 equivalent per kilo of milk. According to the National Farm Survey data, the average farm produced 1.05kg CO2/kg milk while the top 10% of farms in profit monitor produced 0.85kg CO2/kg milk.