Tips for feed budgeting and grassland management in the unrelenting rain

After two years of mayhem on national and international markets, we have arrived at a period of relative normality. However, today’s reality for dairy farming in particular is totally different to even three years ago at many levels, including costs, regulation and environment.

We are facing many challenges and we need to be prudent to ensure our farms are profitable by keeping a strong focus on cost control while striving to implement best practice.

Our key priorities must continue to be our soils, our grass, our cows and ourselves.

The continuous wet weather is not helping: seven of the last nine months on our farm have had above-average rainfall. As I write there is another yellow rainfall event unfolding outside.

The old saying that the same amount of rain falls every year has been undermined, with 30pc more rainfall than normal in 2023 and the first three months of this year continuing the trend.

Feed budget

The wet autumn resulted in animals around here being housed earlier than normal, and the recent rain has delayed turnout for most farmers.

A lot of silage pits are coming empty for the first time in years, with bales now being fed.

Most of the pit silage harvested last summer was good, but a lot of the later-cut bale silage was wet and only average quality. Even if you have enough of this type of silage, it will reduce milk protein when fed to milking cows at a critical time in the lactation reaching peak production.

However, with meal prices still very expensive at €350/t or more, there is no easy solution, and cows need to be fully fed from now on.

Farm update

We have 88pc of the herd calved, allocating 9kg of grass and feeding 3kg of meal plus 5kg of silage.

Butterfat is at 4.84pc but protein has dropped to 3.55pc and the herd are producing almost 2kg of milk solids, with SCC averaging 110 for March collections.

Average farm cover is down to 806 with growth at 25 and demand at 32.

We put a second round of urea last week on 60pc of the milking platform, taking advantage of the dry week and spreading the 40pc already grazed (which included the clover fields) with watery slurry from the lagoon with the umbilical.

In total we now have 46 units out on most of the platform, with a target of 70 including slurry by April 1. As with recent years, all the good slurry from the slatted tanks will be going to the out-farms on the silage and zero-grazing fields nearer to when we close for the first cut.

Amid all the rain, on/off grazing has helped us minimise damage to the soil, which is crucial because Moorepark research has shown poaching or compaction has the potential to badly impact growth for the next few rotations.

On/off grazing has become vital, allowing us to get grass into the cows’ diet during wet weather while minimising any impact on the soil.

Nitrates Derogation

I see there are new proposals around our Nitrates Derogation, with talk of banning the sale of ordinary 46pc urea.

One of the recent innovative ideas discussed in the Farming Independent has been the excellent results achieved from dramatically reduced rates of Urea when dissolved in water and applied to grassland through a sprayer as a foliar application.

New recommendations are being proposed to the government by various groups whose only focus is on emissions or water quality.

Meanwhile, alternative solutions are being successfully tried and implemented on farms as a response to increased costs as well as climate reminding. As the old saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”.