Cows have been housed by night for the last month on Frank Goodman’s farm and are being offered zero grazed grass from an outfarm.
Cows are also being offered 5kg/head/day of maize silage, plus 3.6kg/head/day of concentrates and milk yields are currently averaging 20.6l/head/day.
A local contractor is doing the zero grazing work each day, with grass coming from out-farms or fields on the home block that are furthest from the farmyard.
The farm near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, has a dispersed layout, so zero grazing could be a way for cows to utilise grass from ground that that is too far away to walk to.
“We are considering buying our own machine, but we want to see how it works on a trial basis first. Cows seem very content so far and yields are holding over 20l again,” Frank said.
In previous years, the Goodman herd was split into spring/autumn calving at a ratio of around 80:20. However, breeding was delayed in the autumn calving group last year and all cows will be spring-calving from next year onwards.
Scanning will be carried out within the next few weeks for milking cows and heifers. Frank has a large group of 40 heifers coming forward, which should hopefully allow him to expand herd size while still culling out any problem cows.
The current aim is to increase cow numbers from 90 this year to around 110 head next year, although this is dependent on scanning results.
Silage stocks
The 2020 grass silage campaign is finished up on the Goodman farm and Frank says that there is ample fodder in the yard for the winter period.
“There is 12ac of maize silage to come in, probably in a week or 10 days’ time. It is looking well in the field and it will hopefully be as good as last year’s crop. It analysed between 34-36% starch, and dry matters were excellent,” Frank said.
There is still some of last year’s maize in the pit, which will last until late October at the current rate of buffer feeding. The plan is to hold off opening the new pit of maize until the spring, as cows will be in late lactation by the time last year’s crop is finished.
We will keep cows out by day as long as we can
Ground conditions are holding up well and there is plenty of grass on the milking platform for grazing during the day. The latest grass walk showed average farm cover of 1,048kg DM/ha and growth rate was holding up well at 50kg DM/ha/day.
“We have ample grass for grazing night and day for another month. We will keep cows out by day as long as we can, and if ground conditions hold up into November, we will keep zero grazing as well,” Frank said.
Min-till reseed
A minimum cultivation reseed was carried out on a 13ac field on an out-farm during the summer. An intensive silage mix was selected for sowing. It is made up of 4.8kg of AberClyde (tetraploid), 3.6kg AberGreen (diploid) and 3.6kg of AberWolf (diploid).
Offset: The milking herd is currently averaging 20.6l from 3.6kg of meal.
“It has been a very good strike. The only problem was that we weren’t able to keep up with it, because it was growing that fast. We ended up grazing half of it with young calves and then a light crop of bales was taken off the other half,” Frank said.
Calving and calf rearing is continuing on Dairylink farms with autumn-calving cows.Cows have been housed and put on winter diets on some programme farms.Sires are being selected for the 2020/21 winter breeding season.Slurry is being spread on Dairylink farms ahead of the closed period.Free webinar available to watch online
A free webinar from the Martin family farm in Dromintee, Co Armagh, is now available to view online at www.ifj.ie/dairylink. James and Owen Martin run a 160-cow herd in a fully-housed, all-year-round calving system. The pedigree Holstein herd has a rolling annual yield of 9,706l at 3.88% butterfat and 3.24% protein from 3.5t of concentrate. The one-hour long video focuses on breeding strategies on the Martin farm. In particular, we look at the role that sire selection plays in affecting actual animal performance at Garaba Holsteins.
James and Owen select sires using the UK-based Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI) system. The herd has an overall PLI of £92 and predicted transmitting ability (PTA) for milk is 121kg. The PTA for butterfat and protein is 0.05% and 0.01% respectively, and fertility index is 1.9.
In the past, the Martins have mainly selected sires to deliver yield, but the focus is now shifting towards holding yields and increasing butterfat and protein. Other key traits include fertility index, type merit and mammary.
Cows have been housed by night for the last month on Frank Goodman’s farm and are being offered zero grazed grass from an outfarm.
Cows are also being offered 5kg/head/day of maize silage, plus 3.6kg/head/day of concentrates and milk yields are currently averaging 20.6l/head/day.
A local contractor is doing the zero grazing work each day, with grass coming from out-farms or fields on the home block that are furthest from the farmyard.
The farm near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, has a dispersed layout, so zero grazing could be a way for cows to utilise grass from ground that that is too far away to walk to.
“We are considering buying our own machine, but we want to see how it works on a trial basis first. Cows seem very content so far and yields are holding over 20l again,” Frank said.
In previous years, the Goodman herd was split into spring/autumn calving at a ratio of around 80:20. However, breeding was delayed in the autumn calving group last year and all cows will be spring-calving from next year onwards.
Scanning will be carried out within the next few weeks for milking cows and heifers. Frank has a large group of 40 heifers coming forward, which should hopefully allow him to expand herd size while still culling out any problem cows.
The current aim is to increase cow numbers from 90 this year to around 110 head next year, although this is dependent on scanning results.
Silage stocks
The 2020 grass silage campaign is finished up on the Goodman farm and Frank says that there is ample fodder in the yard for the winter period.
“There is 12ac of maize silage to come in, probably in a week or 10 days’ time. It is looking well in the field and it will hopefully be as good as last year’s crop. It analysed between 34-36% starch, and dry matters were excellent,” Frank said.
There is still some of last year’s maize in the pit, which will last until late October at the current rate of buffer feeding. The plan is to hold off opening the new pit of maize until the spring, as cows will be in late lactation by the time last year’s crop is finished.
We will keep cows out by day as long as we can
Ground conditions are holding up well and there is plenty of grass on the milking platform for grazing during the day. The latest grass walk showed average farm cover of 1,048kg DM/ha and growth rate was holding up well at 50kg DM/ha/day.
“We have ample grass for grazing night and day for another month. We will keep cows out by day as long as we can, and if ground conditions hold up into November, we will keep zero grazing as well,” Frank said.
Min-till reseed
A minimum cultivation reseed was carried out on a 13ac field on an out-farm during the summer. An intensive silage mix was selected for sowing. It is made up of 4.8kg of AberClyde (tetraploid), 3.6kg AberGreen (diploid) and 3.6kg of AberWolf (diploid).
Offset: The milking herd is currently averaging 20.6l from 3.6kg of meal.
“It has been a very good strike. The only problem was that we weren’t able to keep up with it, because it was growing that fast. We ended up grazing half of it with young calves and then a light crop of bales was taken off the other half,” Frank said.
Calving and calf rearing is continuing on Dairylink farms with autumn-calving cows.Cows have been housed and put on winter diets on some programme farms.Sires are being selected for the 2020/21 winter breeding season.Slurry is being spread on Dairylink farms ahead of the closed period.Free webinar available to watch online
A free webinar from the Martin family farm in Dromintee, Co Armagh, is now available to view online at www.ifj.ie/dairylink. James and Owen Martin run a 160-cow herd in a fully-housed, all-year-round calving system. The pedigree Holstein herd has a rolling annual yield of 9,706l at 3.88% butterfat and 3.24% protein from 3.5t of concentrate. The one-hour long video focuses on breeding strategies on the Martin farm. In particular, we look at the role that sire selection plays in affecting actual animal performance at Garaba Holsteins.
James and Owen select sires using the UK-based Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI) system. The herd has an overall PLI of £92 and predicted transmitting ability (PTA) for milk is 121kg. The PTA for butterfat and protein is 0.05% and 0.01% respectively, and fertility index is 1.9.
In the past, the Martins have mainly selected sires to deliver yield, but the focus is now shifting towards holding yields and increasing butterfat and protein. Other key traits include fertility index, type merit and mammary.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: