Weather

The weather has been great for the past few days, but the outlook for the weekend and the early part of next week is anything but. There’s rain forecast for most days, with heavy rain at the weekend. It’s an easy decision for those on middling to heavy land – keep the milkers in and wait for better conditions. Those on dry land can keep cows out by using the following tricks:

  • Only allocate as much as the cows can eat in 12 hours.
  • Don’t let cows out when it is raining overhead.
  • Use on/off grazing when ground is wet. This means grazing for three hours every 12 hours and then housing cows for the rest of the time. Cows will eat 95% of their grass allocation in two three-hour allocations as they would if they were out full-time. However, damage is reduced as they spend 98% of the time outside grazing, as opposed to walking around and loafing. If on-off grazing for more than two or three days, I would feed a few kilos of silage in the shed.
  • Don’t let cows out if they don’t have an appetite for grass. If there’s silage at the feed barrier when they go out, they’re not hungry. I think they should be out of silage for five or six hours before they go out. This isn’t about starving cows, it’s about manipulating the times they eat.
  • Remember, 3kg or 4kgDM of spring grass is a far superior feed in terms of energy and protein than any silage or concentrate nut, so it is worth the effort of grazing.

    • Intakes

    Dry matter intakes for freshly calved cows are low, especially if there are a lot of heifers calved. Total intake for a freshly calved cow is around 10 to 12kgDM. So if you are feeding 3kg of meal then the cows will only eat 7kg to 9kgDM of forage, whether that’s silage or grass. Keep this in mind when allocating grass and meal.

    Feeding a lot of meal to freshly calved cows can be problematic and can lead to stomach problems such as acidosis. Another thing to keep in mind is that there is a lot of grass on most farms, so feeding high levels of meal or silage to cows when they could be out grazing doesn’t make sense.

    Labour

    Don’t forget that the rules around paying employees have changed. You now need to inform Revenue of the amount being paid on or before it is paid. This has implications for casual and relief staff who may be working flexible hours. Talk to your accountant for the best way of dealing with these rules. Stiff penalties apply for non-compliance.

    Also, I see some anti-farming activists are applying for jobs on dairy farms. I think it’s fair to say they are doing so for ulterior motives.

    There are two ways of dealing with this. Firstly, don’t give anyone any reason to complain about the treatment of stock or farming practice. Secondly, whenever you are hiring someone, make sure to go through the standard procedure of supplying a CV and talking to referees. Gaps in employment history should be for legitimate reasons. It’s usually better to have two people present for an interview and show them around the farm on the day.

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