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Milk supply continues to hold well in Kilkenny as feeding continues and growth rates edge upwards. The 21:0:10 fertiliser is working well now and with nice growing conditions farm cover continues to build.
The plan is to start closing covers from this weekend onwards. If a paddock gets too strong there is always the chance to get back in for a graze at a later stage but the plan will be to graze near the yard for next week to make the first grazing that bit easier in Spring 2019.
In mid-September, the most recent load of nuts arrived, landing at €313/t retail price. The 21:0:10 fertiliser landed at €300\t delivered.
Winter feed
Some winter feed has been purchased (hay and round bale silage). The round bales of silage are coming from the northwest.
They are stockpiled and will be transported in November or December period and more or less fed out as they arrive.
At €30 per bale plus transport, it will be expensive forage. However, all forage is expensive this year. Analysis shows it’s good quality and it will be easy to feed out relative to some other alternatives.
Milk
The last milk test (6 October) shows a result of about 1.65kg of milk solids per cow for the 278 milking cows (16.5kg per cow at 4.41% protein (up from 4.33%) and 5.19% fat (down from 5.32%). Cell count is at 173 SCC, 4 TBC and 4.7% lactose.
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