Dairylink: rain halts field work in Armagh

Storm Ciara put a stop to any field work that was taking place on Dairylink Ireland farms. Ground conditions have taken a significant setback and there are no plans for recommencing slurry spreading or getting first round nitrogen out until later in the month at the earliest.

Programme farmers who were tight with slurry storage managed to get on to fields early last week and there is no pressure with space in tanks now.

Most programme farmers are planning to get either half a bag of urea or a bag of CAN on to milking platforms in the next few weeks to help kickstart the 2020 growing season as soon as temperatures rise.

In Northern Ireland, any slurry that is spread during February or October must be at least 15m from waterways, compared with 10m for the rest of the open season. This is a requirement under the new nutrient action plan 2019-22.

The main change for Northern Dairylink participants is the move away from splash plate slurry spreading.

Farmers in Northern Ireland with over 200 livestock units need to use low-emission equipment from 2022 onwards, while contractors can no longer use splash plates from 2021.

James and Owen Martin do all their own slurry work and they are currently weighing up their options for complying with the new rules. This includes retrofitting an existing tanker with a dribble bar or trailing shoe, buying a new low-emission tanker or outsourcing all slurry spreading to contractors.

In the Republic of Ireland, new rules surrounding slurry only affect farmers that operate under a nitrates derogation. For these farmers, all slurry spread after 15 April 2020 must be done with low-emission equipment.

Derogated farmers in the Republic of Ireland are not permitted to use splash plates for the whole of the 2021 spreading season onwards.

Weekly round-up

Rain at the weekend put an end to the first slurry campaign of the season on Owen and James Martin’s farm in Dromintee, Co Armagh.

The Martins got slurry spread on 70 acres earlier in the week at a rate of 2,000 gallons per acre.

They run a fully-housed system, with most of the farm cut for silage four times a year. Heifers and dry cows get to grass, but they are grazed on outfarms.

“There is a good cover of grass across the farm, but we managed to get slurry on to the ground closest to the farmyard. Although covers are so strong on some other fields, we probably won’t be able to spread slurry and we will just have to go on with compound fertiliser before first cut,” James said.

Slurry was spread with a tanker and inverted splash plate last week. An umbilical system wouldn’t work on the Martin farm, as it is a dispersed land block, with only 11 acres directly beside the yard.

The plan is to spread a bag of CAN per acre in late February or early March and compound fertiliser usage later in the spring will be based on the results of soil analysis which was conducted in January.

The milking herd is split in two groups on the Martin farm. There are currently 96 cows in the high-yielding group that are being offered a total mixed ration (TMR) of grass silage, 5kg of blend, 5kg of wheat and 1kg of straw. The high yielders are then fed to yield in the parlour up to a maximum feed rate of 7kg/day.

There are 52 cows in the low-yielding group and their TMR includes 3kg of blend, 3kg of wheat, 1kg of straw. Concentrates are offered at a flat rate of 1kg/day to all low yielders.

Production

The Martins have a flat seasonal production profile, as cows calve all year.

Like all Dairylink Ireland phase two participants, they are undertaking monthly benchmarking for margin over concentrate (MOC). This is effectively how much of the milk cheque is left over after the meal bill has been paid each month.

The latest figures have MOC sitting at £5.79/cow/day, with milk yields averaging 29.4litres/cow/day and milk from forage sitting at 4litres/cow/day.

Rolling annual figures for the 2019 calendar year show milk yield averaged 9,196 litres from 3.54t of concentrate, which equates to 1,331litres/cow from forage.

Concentrate feed rate on the Martin farm for the year averaged 0.39kg/litre, which is less efficient than the NI average of 0.31kg/litre.

However, MOC stood at £1,616/cow, which is ahead of the NI average of £1,400/cow. This is mainly driven by the higher than average milk yields on the Martin farm.

James anticipates that the rolling annual milk yield will rise and concentrate feed rate will reduce over the next three months.

This is because cows were fed second-cut silage from January to March 2019, whereas, this time round, first-cut silage is being offered over the same period this year.

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