Update planning with change of season
A lot of the Waikato is still experiencing wonderful growing conditions although for those doing regular pasture walks you will have noted that growth rates have halved to where they were and therefore average pasture cover (APC) seems to be holding on many farms.
Farms have also taken the opportunity to make some autumn silage that although not as good a quality of spring silage will still help feed cows in the winter and enables other forms of supplement e.g. maize silage to be taken into next season.
Taking off the supplement has also allowed control on the remaining area and has had a beneficial impact on pasture quality. Growth rates have slowed mainly because the summer grasses that had been dominant have started to slow down as they reach the end of their life span.
Therefore good practice now is to start applying nitrogen to enable the ryegrass to tiller and fill in the area occupied by less desirable species
This is also the first autumn in many years that we have been able to delay sending empty cows off farm although many farms are slowly looking to reduce numbers throughout this month.
The timing of these decisions all comes down to planning and I would expect farms to have done an autumn feed budget that can be monitored and used to help in this process.
It is vital at this point to be monitoring cow condition score (CS) and drying off cows once they meet minimum CS.
For example I would expect cows at CS 3.5 and heifers at CS 4 to be dried off at te end of March. This will allow time to put con- dition before winter.
This will also help with lengthening the rotation length progressively so that APC targets are achieved. This is especially important for those who are moving farms and need to have the farm set up for the incoming people.
This is also an ideal time for catching up on repairs and maintenance (R&M) whilst the weather is suitable. Remember how wet farms were in spring?
Perhaps some drainage projects are needed to ensure that farm management is not compromised during the next wet season.
The races may need a ‘‘tidy up’’. There is nothing more frustrating than lame cows and minimising this is extremely important. For those leaving farms there should be a list of R&M jobs needing to be done. Don’t leave these to the last minute.
Remember that planning for next season has already started and don’t compromise this by pushing too hard in this one.
Monitoring the feed budget and condition scoring cows regularly will enable the right decisions to be made at the right time.
-James Thomas, FarmWise Consultant