Farmers are a month behind on grass fodder
They never thought that feeding minimum grass and other forage with concentrates would be a major topic in April.
But this was the case for many farms as they tried to stretch the little grass they had with expensive purchased forage and concentrates.
Despite the high price for concentrates, they were generally cheaper than purchased forage on the basis of digestible dry matter consumed.
Dairy farmers were particularly affected because most of them were fairly heavily stocked in preparation for milk expansion when quotas end in 2015.
Many farmers have too many cows, for the amount of grass and milk they are producing, and they would be better off with higher-yielding herds.
Most herds have the genetic potential to produce 20% more milk than they are producing.
Some farmers are also over-stocked, not on a cows per hectare basis but on the amount of grass that is grown and utilised on their farms, even in a normal year.
Recent Moorepark surveys indicated that almost half our farms are growing little over half of their potential grass growth.
So when we talk of stocking rate, we must take into account the grassland management on the farms.
Furthermore, heavy land is particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather.
While the benefits of very early grazing are without doubt, the system is abused in many cases, leading to damaged pastures and suppressed growth. After more than 13 months of almost continuously poor weather, farmers have a lot of catching up to do.
This is particularly the case for farmers in heavy land areas where much of the grassland has been damaged. The priority for every farmer now is to get all grassland back in good shape as soon as possible — and this is not an easy task.
Some damaged pastures have already been improved by over-seeding and aeration, but there is a lot left to be done, as well as reseeding.
Fortunately, there is a reasonably good price for milk, and dairy prospects are good, which should be some comfort to farmers.
Winter Feed
The difficult task of providing fodder for next winter is already staring many farmers in the face, even though they are not out of the problems of last winter yet.
Best practice for providing adequate winter feed has generally been to close at least 40% of grassland for first-cut silage in early April. This provided the cheapest and best source of winter feed.
A good crop of first cut in late May or early June costs only about half that of lighter late cuts, on a digestible dry matter basis.
Trials have shown that silage yields from ground that has been grazed two or three times during spring are likely to be only half that of silage fields grazed once in March, and this has to be taken into account when calculating winter feed budgets this year.
Unfortunately, grass was so scarce this year that it was almost impossible to close ground for silage on most farms in April, or even in early May. Getting quality grass into cows and replacements was the first priority. Now, compromises will have to be made on most farms, and higher than usual supplementation will have to be continued in order to close for silage. Farmers should ensure that adequate N, P, K, sulphur and lime are applied.
Do not apply lime now on silage areas, because there is a huge risk of it creating a high pH in the silage and damaging it.
The main task on dairy farms now is to provide as much high quality grass as possible for cows and replacements, and make plans for winter feed at the same time. Many farmers will be managing their farms this week in a similar way to what they would be doing in mid-April in a normal year.
In order to provide winter feed, most farmers will have to continue to feed much more concentrates than normal in May. This will mean feeding less grass than usual. However, cows should not be forced to graze too tightly (under 4cm) because this will reduce grass growth and can have a serious affect on fertility and milk production. While grass is scarce, each extra kg of meal costing around 30 cent should produce an extra kg of milk worth about 35c, while keeping cows in proper condition for breeding and good health.
It will not be possible to provide adequate silage on many dairy farms, mainly because the normal supply of after-grass will not be coming back into the grazing system in late June and in July.
Now is the best time to make provisions for next winter’s feed, because as the year progresses, the options will become more difficult and costly.
All possibilities should be considered. These include reducing stock on the farm, using proper levels of fertiliser, growing catch crops on dry land, renting land, purchasing growing silage crops, purchasing whole-crop cereals or maize or other fodder.
Your winter feed budget, together with these options and others, should be discussed in detail with your adviser now, because farmers are facing a whole new situation, and the best solution to winter feed problems will vary from farm to farm and area to area.
The bad weather of the past year really emphasises the importance of having surplus winter feed. I have always stressed the importance of having about 20% more silage than required in the pits in an average year. If there is a surplus, it can be carried over or used in times of scarcity.
With the success of early grazing in a few seasons of fine weather, this advice was classed as old-fashioned by some farmers, who chose to farm with high stocking rates and minimum reserves.
It will be difficult to provide a surplus for next winter, but it should be done, when the opportunity arises.
