Dairylink Ireland: autumn-calving herds reducing feed demand

Another week of dry conditions ahead – this is not at all what Dairylink farmers have been looking for. A few of the project farms have reseed areas which undoubtedly will now need to be redrilled. A few others are waiting for the potential for moisture before getting seed into the ground.

This week has seen a real drop-off in milk output across the Dairylink group. Some of this drop-off is herds coming to late lactation on the autumn-calving farms. However, moisture deficiency and extreme heat have played a role.

Grass supply is well back on all farms. Growth rates down to 40kg DM in Cavan and virtually zero in Co Down. Water supply is still OK on the project farms, with drinkers able to keep up with the demand. Many of the project farms invested in additional drinkers last year and can move fences to allow access to a second drinker in paddocks.

Slowing grass demand is still the primary objective in these conditions. As reported last week, the Co Down farms have taken the most severe action, with drying cows off and taking other drystock off ground.

The quantity of forage in pits across the Dairylink group is below target at this stage. Many of the second cuts have been taken with very dry and hard grass in the pit – so quality will not be good. Building the third cut area must be a priority now, especially in Down.

At the moment moisture is the limiting factor for grass growth, not nitrogen. Nitrogen cannot be taken up by the plant in these conditions. This means we need to be ready to get nitrogen on when the rain comes. The nitrogen spread more recently (last month) will still be there. I would suggest blanket spreading the remainder of the farm when we get rain.

Robin Clements

Trilick, Co Tyrone

Grass growth in Tyrone is starting to slow. However, good silage crops in the bale and reseeds are shining through on Robin Clements’ farm.

The pain of reseeding hit hard on Robin’s farm last year, with 70 acres taken out for reseeding. Ultimately, this affected forage stocks made last year. However, this year, the new reseeds are excelling in quality and quantity for Robin. Second-cut area is averaging eight round bales per acre, with six weeks of growth.

Average grass growth on the farm has slowed down this week. It is currently at 74kg DM/ha. Farm cover is 514kg DM/ha, with 3.2 cows/ha on the grazing block.

Robin will be going on with fertiliser and slurry this week on all silage areas. All paddocks have nitrogen on. Paddocks grazed recently are slow to recover.

The grass wedge is highlighting a deficit at lower-cover paddocks and I can see a delay in regrowth on the silage area.

Twenty-five percent of the herd is dry this week. Getting these cows moved away from the grazing block has allowed us to park the zero-grazer for a few months.

Cows are moving into late lactation, with 54 heifers due to calve in September and October, with 80 cows on top of this due to calve in the same period.

Some of the early September-calving cows have been dried off this week to reduce workload, with the remainder due to be dried from mid-July. Standard antibiotics and teat seal have been used on all cows.

Extending the parlour

Work on extending the parlour has started. The Clements are adding two milking points to the parlour on each side, so moving the parlour from a 16:16 to a 20:20 parlour. The parlour will still be a comfortable one-person parlour. With the additional milking points, they hope to move from 80 cows/hour to 95 to 100/hour. When building the parlour seven years ago, space was left to extend the number of milking points, so no building work is required and the existing vacuum and milk transfer equipment is sufficient for the additional milking points.