Annual grass yields on Kevin McGrade’s farm near Dromore, Co Tyrone, increased by 17% over the first three years of the Dairylink Ireland programme to 10.9t DM/ha last year.

Addressing issues with soil fertility by undertaking soil sampling in each paddock on the milking platform every year has allowed Kevin to target soils that are low in pH, phosphorus and potassium with lime and compound fertilisers.

Although a block autumn-calving herd, the McGrade system has a strong focus on producing milk from grazed grass when conditions allow in both autumn and spring.

Therefore, expansion of the herd over the past three years has been based on additional grass grown on the farm and not increasing levels of bought-in feed.

In 2017, farm working expenses increased by 5.5p/l, mainly because capital investments of buying additional cows, improving grazing infrastructure and machinery purchases were funded from cash reserves

Concentrate feed levels increased slightly last year as more meal had to be fed due to the wet autumn. However, milk from forage last year was still similar to 2015 levels at 3,447 litres/cow.

Financially, the farm has performed well over phase one of Dairylink Ireland. This is noteworthy given that 2015 and 2016 were low milk price years.

Although the milk pricing system in NI is based on volume, high fat and protein levels have allowed Kevin to avail of bonuses for milk quality. Average milk price received on the McGrade farm in 2015, 2016 and 2017 was 23.4p/l, 24.1p/l and 31.8p/l respectively. Over the three-year period, this has been 3.2p/l higher than the average milk price paid in NI.

The figures show that high fat and protein milk delivers significant extra income with essentially no additional cost. Kevin has been breeding for fat and protein for almost 20 years and bonuses for milk quality were a key factor in allowing the farm to generate a cash surplus during the low milk price years of 2015 and 2016.

In 2017, farm working expenses increased by 5.5p/l, mainly because capital investments of buying additional cows, improving grazing infrastructure and machinery purchases were funded from cash reserves. All one- to two-year-old replacement heifers are now with contract rearers until a few weeks before calving. This extra cost will be offset by increasing milk output from the home block, as less ground is needed for heifers, with the plan being to milk 160 cows this year.

What are the three most important steps you have taken in the last three years?

What is your aim over the next three years?

Stocking rate has increased over the past number of years on the back of increased grass growth. This farm has clay-type soils and is in a high rainfall area, so an overall stocking rate of 2.0LU/ha is as far as we want to push it. We do not want to increase stocking rate too high in case we run into difficulties in a bad year.

Expansion of the herd this year is coming from more land being available for the milking platform, with all one- to two-year-old heifers away at contract rearers. Expansion in the future will only come if more land becomes available close to the parlour.

There is still work to do with addressing soil fertility. Potassium is particularly low on this farm, with 74% of the milking platform below optimal levels.

We will continue to carry out soil analysis of each paddock each year to get an up to date handle on what we should be sowing.

How has this summer’s dry weather affected your farm?

This has been the best summer in my memory. Dry weather slowed up grass growth for a while in July, but it usually drops at some point every year and it never dipped below 40kg DM/ha/day this summer.

More recently, there has been plenty of rainfall, with grass growth sitting at 100kg DM/ha/day last week. We are continuing to take surplus grass out for bales, with over 600 bales made last week.

Good growth means we are well stocked for the winter and the dry weather has allowed excellent utilisation of grazed grass too.

We reseeded 20 acres in late May and then another 15 acres a few weeks later. Both lots of reseeding struck very well.