Dairy Management: Bulling cows and difficulties with grazing

Barry Reilly is a trainee farm manager on Patrick Stratford’s farm near Virginia in Co. Cavan. Barry says that the farm is extremely dry and free draining so despite the heavy rain over the weekend he says the cows are doing very little damage, as can be seen in the photos taken on Monday.

Cows are still on 36 hour grass allocations and have been since the start of the second rotation. Growth rate measured for the seven days up to last Friday was 52kg per day. Average farm cover is 180kg per cow and cows are on zero meal since the 7th of April. Magnesium is supplied through the water to prevent grass tetany.

The herd is all spring calving and is milking 22 litres per day, at 4.21% fat and 3.71% protein or 1.8kg MS per cow. The big job on the farm at the moment is breeding with AI having started last Friday. So far, 18% have been served which is on target.

Breeding the maiden heifers started last Tuesday and by Monday of this week 30% of these had come into heat. The ones not served are getting a shot of PG today (Tuesday) and will be bulled to standing heat. The maiden heifers are contract reared, but AI is carried out by Barry and the farm owner.

Down south, Kerry native Micheal O Sullivan, who is working with John McNamara in Knockainey Co. Limerick says the weather is making management difficult. Cows have been on 12 hour wires for the last 10 days.

Micheal says the cows aren’t doing damage as they are “mixing and matching” paddocks – grazing a dry paddock on a wet day and a heavier paddock on a dry day. So far this is working out OK but he says that residuals have taken a hit with cows leaving a bit more grass behind than he would like.

Average farm cover is 180kg per cow, growth rate for the five days up to last Sunday was 56kg/day. The herd is on 1kg of meal and is milking 26 litres per day at 4.07% fat and 3.5% protein or 2.02kg Milk Solids per cow per day.

The breeding season for the main herd started one week ago today and so far 35% have been submitted which is well on target. AI on the heifers started two weeks earlier and so after three weeks 90% of these have been inseminated.

Micheal says roughly half of these are Jersey crossbred and the breeding policy for the heifers is to give crossbred heifers the Friesian bull HMY and Friesian heifers will get the Jersey bull OKM.

Over to the east, former chef Ciaran Fogarty is working with Adrian Casey near Kilmacthomas in Co. Waterford.

When I phoned Ciaran he was in the middle of helping the vet operate on a cow with a left displaced abomasum (LDA). Ciaran noticed that the cow had been off form for a week or two so got the vet to look at her when he was scanning the cows not yet served.

Ciaran expects the cow to make a full recovery. On the breeding front, after three weeks of AI 92% of the herd was bulled. The vet was out to scan the 8% not yet served and of these, 2% were given CIDR’s with the remainder cycling normally and just requiring more time.

Ciaran thinks this is great information to have as it gives him and the farm owner Adrian great peace of mind. On the grass front, he says that serious rain over the weekend caused some damage to the field the cows were in. Cows have been on 12 hour allocations since the start of grazing. Growth rate for the past week was a respectable 67kg per day, average farm cover is 182kg per cow and demand is at 70kg per cow.

Both Ciaran and Micheal are hoping to cut silage as soon as weather allows which will reduce their demand. Ciaran had a slight grass shortage a week ago so went back to graze a field with a cover 1900kg on it which was intended for silage – this field was pre-mowed.

Cows are milking very well 2.09kg milk solids per cow per day. They are on 2kg of meal and fat is 4.18% and protein is 3.49%. About 30% of the herd are crossbred.