Dairy management: grass supply under big pressure

Grass

While growth rates picked up this week due to warmer weather, as outlined on page 38 the grass situation is dire on most farms, particularly in Munster and Leinster. Those in the north and west have had a relatively good autumn and are in a much better situation grass-wise.

With cold weather set to come in over the weekend, we can expect a reduction in grass growth rates back to normal levels or below. For the situation to be redeemed we need higher than normal growth rates between now and the end of the season in order to keep grass in the diet.

Otherwise, the winter is going to start weeks earlier than normal and that will put pressure on silage stocks but also reduce milk yield dramatically. Keeping some grass in the diet until at least this time next month will have big benefits in terms of milk yield, work and silage but it cannot happen at the expense of grass next spring.

There’s a much bigger reward for early spring grazing than there is for late autumn grazing. Doing a grass budget was sort of meaningless up to now, but that has changed and a grass budget must be done to decide on how much to feed and when to stop grazing.

Calves

The Prime Time TV show on Tuesday highlighted abuses of calf welfare rules and the hidden cameras showed calves being mistreated at a calf export lairage. It just goes to show there are no hiding places when it comes to calves and best practice must be adhered to at all times, for the sake of the calves. While free cash is scarce on many farms, there is still time to make improvements and adjustments to calf sheds before next spring.

Having sufficient housing reduces the stress on people and calves. At this stage, it is essential to have enough housing for all calves intended to be kept, but also calves that are intended for sale. This is because if calves can’t be sold due to for example, TB restrictions, boats not sailing, or general poor demand, then calves will have to be kept on farm for longer. That is easier said than done but it’s the mindset that dairy farmers need to have in order to protect the image of the sector and maintain top animal welfare standards.

The crunch time for calves usually comes from mid-March onwards when most calves are born. Some farmers have stand-by calf housing by converting calving pens to calf pens (as the number of cows calving decreases dramatically). Others convert slatted pens in say weanling sheds to calf sheds. The thinking being that the older cattle will have gone to grass and the shed is empty.

They power wash the sheds, put gates in front of the feed barrier and put straw on the slats. Straw on slats works well with very little falling through the slats. These pens are then cleaned out at the end of the season by a mini-digger or small tractor.

Other options include adapting straw storage sheds into calf sheds when most of the straw is used. Others will put calf hutches into empty silage pits. While none of these options will be as good as a purpose-built calf shed they are still suitable options that won’t cost much.