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The mixed weather for the last number of weeks is really suiting the dry soil grassland farms in the east of the country. Greenfield Kilkenny has taken out surplus grass as round bales. In total to date, over 900 round bales have been made and stacked in the yard. These bales are in addition to the silage that was stopped and harvested for first cut silage which was added on top of what was left over from last winter. Tom Lyng estimates that there is about 220t of dry matter in the pit and 900 bales at 220kg DM/bale (McHale Fusion baler) means there is another 200t of dry matter in bales.
The mixed weather for the last number of weeks is really suiting the dry soil grassland farms in the east of the country. Greenfield Kilkenny has taken out surplus grass as round bales. In total to date, over 900 round bales have been made and stacked in the yard. These bales are in addition to the silage that was stopped and harvested for first cut silage which was added on top of what was left over from last winter.
Tom Lyng estimates that there is about 220t of dry matter in the pit and 900 bales at 220kg DM/bale (McHale Fusion baler) means there is another 200t of dry matter in bales.
Watch the full video from Greenfield Farm here:
Where has stocking rate gone?
Growth rates for May and June have been some of the highest recorded since the farm was converted from tillage and are running 20% to 30% ahead of the five-year average. These growth rates are based on the same supply of bag nitrogen as other years, so it’s the improved soil fertility and rainfall arriving at the right time that is driving the additional growth.
The improved soil fertility is coming from a detailed paddock-by-paddock soil fertility plan. Paddocks are soil-tested every year and a plan is drawn up for feeding each paddock correctly.
For example, here are some of the actions completed this year:
Sulphur on dry soils – 40 units of sulphur per acre have been applied to the end of June.
Summer lime – lime was applied to those paddocks that needed it after silage.
Phosphorus dribble – since the start of July, 10:10:20 has been applied to those paddocks low in phosphorus and potassium.
Weekly nitrogen – bag nitrogen is spread every week on paddocks just grazed, not every four or five weeks.
When the farm walk is completed each Monday, the paddocks for bag nitrogen are listed and the paddocks that will be grazed over the next few days are included in the list and the contractor arrives on a Friday and spreads the paddocks.
For dry farms, keeping the nitrogen topped up to avail of good grass growth rates when they arrive is paramount. At the moment, because of the nitrogen restrictions, only 15 to 18 units of bag nitrogen per acre is going out. Another 30 acres will be cut for bales this week, delivering another 100 or so bales. Unfortunately the fact is some of these paddocks have been cut twice so far this year. The plan always is to only try and cut once but if exceptional growth rates arrive sometimes the after-grass just gets too strong.
Of course what makes all this tick is the dribble of rain that has arrived on cue every week for the last number of weeks. In the east of the country, you need that trickle to keep the grass growing. For June, 74mm (3in) of rain was recorded in Kilkenny. Up in Donegal last week, I saw rainfall records on one dairy farm showing rainfall always over 1,200mm (48 inches) for the last four years and that’s a different game to the Kilkenny job, where 700mm to 800mm (32 inches) is more the norm. The warm weather this week will be very welcome in Donegal after two weeks of wet weather.
So the question is can the Kilkenny farm now carry more milking cows rather than making surplus silage and yes is probably the answer based on the growth rates this year.
Figure 1 shows the stocking rate per week since mid-April – at all times it has been at or above four cows/ha but is back closer to 3.5 cows/ha now that all paddocks are available for grazing.
Remember the overall farm stocking rate is at 2.75 cows/ha (330 cows on 120ha) so that’s where stocking rate is at on the shoulders.
Herd fertility
Last Friday the farm passed week 12 of the breeding season but AI continues this week. Depending on the day, there is still one or two cows repeating per day.
About three weeks ago, farm staff Tom and Eoin noticed problems with two of the eight vasectomised bulls. One bull was swollen underneath and the other was dripping some blood as the lads started to see some blood on and in the cows. Tom’s concern was that the blood would make the AI straw ineffective so he got the vet in to identify the two bulls with problems and took them out of action.
June milk cheque
In June, 215,528 litres were supplied averaging 4.42% fat and 3.69% protein while the average SCC was 127,000 cells/ml. The farm has a proportion of milk in three different fixed milk price schemes, so, as shown in Table 1, the average price attained by the farm is ahead of the base manufacturing price. The price per litre ranges from 34.5 c/litre down to the base price of 22.4 c/l excluding VAT. Bottom line the net milk value per litre for June (including VAT) came in at 26.4 c/l delivering a cheque of €56,900 to the farm.
Milk solids continue to improve and in the last week the cows have actually gone up in milk a little to average about 19 litres per cow on grazed grass. The latest fat result came back at 4.44% fat and the latest protein was 3.74% with an SCC of 110 or the equivalent of 1.60kg MS/cow.
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