“There is huge potential to reduce costs and increase profit this spring due to the higher grass covers currently on farms,” according to Michael O’Donovan, Teagasc Moorepark. Speaking at the morning session of the Irish Grassland Association Dairy conference this Thursday, he said getting cows out to grass after they calve will give farmer €2.70 more per cow per day.

He also said that grazing early in the spring grows more grass, with the top farmers measuring grass on Pasturebase Ireland growing 1.2t more grass in the spring period. Cork farmer Shane Crean told the 400 farmers present that he now targets to have 35% of the farm grazed by the end of February, with 70% grazed by St Patrick’s day.

“It is easier to graze the grass early and fill the feed gaps that arise in early April,” he said. Teagasc’s O’Donovan stressed the need to get out nitrogen when conditions dry up. He also said farmers should be using the spring rotation planner to budget out grass up until 1 April.

Farmers who measure grass make more money

The other key message was that farmers who measure, grow more grass and make more money. Earlier in the day, Dr Edmund Harty of Dairymaster told farmers at the breakfast meeting that if you do not measure you cannot make the right decisions. Body condition score (BCS) was also highlighted as key to increased herd profitability. Mary Herlihy, Teagasc, and Finbarr Mulligan, UCD, both stressed the need to ensure BCS is 3-3.25 at calving. Presenting preliminary results from a 2,000-cow trial across Munster of both first- and second-lactation cows, she said those that lost over 0.5 BCS from calving to breeding will see a dramatic reduction in fertility. Herlihy said moving to once-a-day milking is the best tool for cows in low BCS after calving. She also said farmers should look to get over €120 for fertility subindex in EBI – it clearly is working when it comes to getting a high six-week calving rate.