Spreading the good word of Grazing!

Firstly, apologies for such a late blog post. I do try and update once a fortnight. But in my defence it's been a particularly busy month.

Mid summer is a great time to get off our own farms and get out of the daily bubble.

To start off, we've had a great trip to Pembrokeshire to see the in-laws, and to show our four month old daughter the beautiful beaches for the first time. Fortunately she slept most of the four hour journey there, and was in a good mood for the whole trip!

More recently I've been to Ireland, to visit Moorepark for their open day. With a fantastic turnout of over 14000 people, it's fair to say Irish farmers are positive about grassland farming!

Moorepark Open Day 2015

We began the day in groups listening to the first key speakers, outlining the core messages for the day. With the recent removal of EU milk quotas, sustainable expansion was the overriding theme. What struck me was the smaller scale of dairy farms in Ireland. I'd estimate the average "NZ system" grazing farm in the UK milks close to 300 cows. Whereas in Ireland, where the majority are block calving, the average was 60 cows. Expansion plans also seemed modest with one speaker describing the move from 60 to 80 cows in the future. Whilst these numbers are only the national averages, with many larger and even smaller herds, it emphasises a key difference of scale between UK and Irish units.

A typical information board from the day.

The day was really well organised, with a ridiculous amount of information on offer, covering pretty much every aspect of grassland dairying. It left us wondering why the UK couldn't produce similar research?

In truth the variation in farming systems makes the task of the levy funded research body in the UK a real headache. Ireland's advantage is that they only have to cater to a single grass based audience, whereas the UK has to appease everybody from total confinement operators, to extensive block calving. Fortunately for those of us in the latter camp, Ireland is only a ferry ride away!

Just before I sign off, in a previous post I said I'd share the success or failure of my direct drilled reseeds. Well here's the results ....

Drilled reseeds

Unfortunately the picture doesn't tell the whole story. After a month in the ground the seedlings had germinated and emerged on only about half the ground. We decided to redrill at an angle, which worked straight away. My guess is, there was too much of a compressed matt in the top few inches of soil, this smothered the seeds, and those that did come struggled to root in the hard ground. Only when this matt had rotted away enough was the ground ready for the second drilled seeds to establish. What would I do differently? Maybe try and break the ground and matt with a harrow before drilling. We live and learn in farming!

Pre Mowing: Recreational diesel use?

Cows tucking in to premown grass back in 2012

Today's post is all about the "sexy" topic of premowing grass for grazing. Just from my own conversations with fellow grazers, it seems the majority have dabbled with premowing at some point, with a range of success. My own opinion is that it's an important tool to help manage grass quality heading into the summer. Others are slightly more sceptical. With this in mind I thought I'd share my tips and thoughts on the practice.

Five years ago we sold our topper and instead bought a mower. This was not to cut silage with, but to specifically premow grass. Topping worked OK, but in some situations the dead grass would lie on the ground and prevent the regrowth shooting through. Here was our justification for the change:

Despite the best management in the world cows will not hit 1500kgDM residuals every time, for a range of reasons, some within our control, others not. Over allocation, inclement weather or just plain bad luck! The decision then is to either try and correct the residual mechanically or hope the cows will graze better 'next time'. The problem is the deck is stacked against us if we use the 'next time' approach. Grazing to 1800kgDM for example, shifts the 'growth point' up to this height, with everything below, low quality, unpalatable stem. At this point we saw premowing as a simple correctional tool to reset the paddock. But what if there were other benefits we hadn't considered?

We soon noticed that when the grass was mown, cows were finishing grazing quicker and lying down full. Then there was the jump in milksolids. Cows went from 1.8 to 1.94kgMS almost overnight. During our surplus months we could now allocate more grass to the cows, knowing they could hoover it up, expending less energy walking the paddock pulling the grass themselves. Capturing the benefits of more feed for less effort.

Costing the exercise is a lot harder. Fuel, labour, repairs and depreciation all have a cost. However, the cost of doing nothing, we have seen time and again, as milk output declined every summer. To this day we now take an aggressive approach to residuals. Any paddock which doesn't meet the standard is put on a list and, weather permitting, will be premown in the next round.

Here are my Dos and Don'ts for those wishing to try it out:

• Don't mow in a deficit. Mowing slows regrowth, especially when mowing higher covers.
• Don't mow covers over 3700kgDM. Grass above this cover has lost a lot of its quality and palatability.
• Don't mow more than 24 hours in advance during dry weather. Grass will overwilt.
• Do mow 12-24 hours in front of cows. Some wilting will increase the dry matter of grass without losing quality. In very dry weather, the cows can go in straight after mowing.
• Do mow early in the year. The sooner you can start mowing, the sooner you can stop grass pushing towards heading.
• Do mow high quality lush grass. The better the grass, the more profound the impact from increased intakes.
• Do mow low. Use a plate meter to measure your mowed residual, the closer to 1500kgDM the more effective it is.

I hope these helped. Ultimately whether you use a mower, topper, or a second mob of stock to tidy paddocks doesn't matter. The important thing is to recognise poor residuals and remedy them before it's too late!

Reseeding 101

Here's a post with a guide to reseeding grass to grass!

Sprayed and drilled pasture at the runoff block.

1. Identify why a paddock needs to be reseeded.

Here, good pasture growth records are vital. 

Paddocks ranked according to TDM/Ha 2014

As we can see in the table, my best paddocks grew over 18T whereas my worst barely grew 10T. With this information I can put my efforts into improving these worst paddocks, for maximum return.

The first thing you can do is asses the condition of the sward. If a paddock contains less than 50% perennial ryegrass then it will likely need a reseed. To identify these grasses pluck some grass and check for the distinctive red colour at the base of the stem. These grasses have the highest performance, both in growth, quality and economic response to fertiliser.

Next I'll consult a recent soil sample. Grants in Wales have enabled us to soil test the entire farm every 3 seasons, at minimal cost. Once the status of the paddock is known I can start correcting any deficiencies in PH, P and K indices.

Now I've decided to reseed I can move onto step 2.

2. Choose an appropriate cultivar: My rant against the seed industry!

There are a myriad of different mixes and grass seed houses selling their wares in the UK. Unfortunately, despite having some of the best cultivar research in the world (IBERS, Aberystwyth), farmers have been badly served by the seed industry. 

Mixes often contain upwards of 6 different varieties, with different characteristics and heading dates. These mixes are a nightmare to manage, with grass heading at different times of year. Worse still the high levels of competition in the sward will mean after the initial establishment year, the more competitive grasses will simply kill off any others. This means your 6 variety mix will end up as a 4 variety ley, with the extra seed a waste of money. 

So why are seed houses pushing these mixes? The answer is to shift old stock. One or two of the varieties may be the latest and greatest seed, but the rest will be bulked out with older, lower performance stock.

My advice is to specify your own mixture, you may be surprised to find it no more expensive than buying off the shelf mixes!

Tetraploid vs Diploid

Tetraploids are more open, erect grasses, that are darker in colour. 

Pros: 

-Higher sugars, with some evidence suggesting they support higher animal performance.

-More open making them more clover friendly

-More palatable leading to lower residuals

-Bigger seeds establish faster in adverse conditions

Cons:  

-Less persistent

-Easier to poach in wet weather

-Easier to overgraze in a drought

Diploids are denser growing, more prostrate grasses, paler than tetraploids.

Pros:

-Denser swards

-More tolerant to poaching

-More tolerant to overgrazing

Cons:

-Less clover friendly

-Slightly less palatable

-Smaller seeds, slower establishment in adverse conditions

Remember tetraploids are more competitive in a sward. If you sow 30% Tet. and 50% Dip., after 3 years the sward will be 50-50.

If this all sounds a bit complicated, sow mainly diploids in wetter areas and mainly tetraploids in drought safe, drier areas. Choose 1-3 varieties with 1-2kg/acre of clover (if you want it). Sow at 14kg/acre for Dip. swards and 17kg/acre for Tet.

The new Irish Pasture Profit Index will help you create your own mix:

http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/moorepark/PastureProfitIndex/ppts/TeagascPastureProfitIndex2015.pdf

3. Choose a reseeding method.

In NZ it is common to spray off the old ley, then direct drill with the new. This simple system can be very cost effective, roughly a third of the cost of cultivating, harrowing and rolling the paddock. It also has benefits in preserving the soil structure (good for worms!) and avoiding plough pans and associated problems. However some caution must be taken before using this technique.

If there is a high level of root mat, common in old permanent pastures, then the old sward will create an acidic environment when it dies off. This can stop germination, resulting in failure. To get round this you can apply lime before drilling. However in some cases it won't be enough. In this case some sort of cultivation is required to break up the mat before sowing.

Grass emerging in the drill rows.

This year we've taken the risk and sprayed off the old permanent pasture, limed and drilled, with no cultivation. As you can see in the image above the seeds have germinated OK, coming much quicker in the open parts of the paddock where the old mat isn't shading the seedlings. I'm crossing my fingers it will work, but am already regretting not running a harrow over the field to open the sward more before drilling. If I feel brave I'll post another picture in a months time so you can see our success/failure!

I hope this has helped, establishing grass can seem very complicated and often a bit of luck can make all the difference!

Peak Milk: Flat rate feeding systems

Cows grazing paddock 26, sown with AberGain.

We've had a week of very warm weather. Growth was recorded at 60 on Monday, but with some much needed rain forecast, hopefully it will have overtaken demand, which is running closer to 70.

Cows are down to 1kg a day of meal in the parlour, just enough to maintain a steady cowflow in the dairy. Despite cutting out the meal, milk output hasn't dropped, with cows giving 2.1kgMS. One thing we've noticed, however, is that with the good weather and our fast rotation, there is very little stem in the base of the sward. This is the equivalent of feeding more of the "concentrate", leafy, part of the grass plant, with high energy and protein, but low structural fibre. Butterfats are very low, at 3.55%, but volumes are very high at 29.5 litres. 

So the question is should we be feeding more of a high fibre meal to redress this balance?

In short I'd say no. Especially with this years' milk prices. With this in mind I thought I'd discuss an alternative approach.

A lot of UK seasonal calvers have adopted a flat rate feeding approach. Cows are fed the same amount of meal , typically 3-4kg/cow, everyday of lactation, essentially fixing demand. Here are some pros and cons of this system:

Pros:

-Very easy to budget meal costs.

-Easy for staff, less decision making.

-Efficient way of administering minerals.

-Consistent part of diet for cows.

-Can protect milk income from vagaries of grass quality and weather.

Cons:

-Unable to capitalise on a "good growing year", where high grass growth leads to lower meal costs.

-Surplus growth can only be captured as silage.

-Without an appropriate stocking rate the points above can be exacerbated.

In our own position flat rate feeding doesn't add up. This is because we already make enough silage on our runoff block. Any silage made from the platform is a management headache, as we prefer to keep the whole grazing block in our rotation, challenging cows to eat as much cheap, high quality grass as possible.

Whatever approach you take to supplement feeding the important questions to ask are:

1) Why am I feeding?

2) From a whole systems approach, does it pay?

Until next time, keep grazing!

Emlyn

Magic Day at last!

Just a quick post to mark the passing of Magic Day, where grass growth overtakes demand. My guess was it was sometime last week.

It hasn't been a vintage Spring, with growth generally below average for much of March. But there's nothing like a good April to cheer us up!

April scenes at Tre Abbot

As you can make out in the picture, we've done our reseeding this week. 

I'll have to write a separate post on reseeding, but until then here's the brief:

This years mix/per acre is, AberGain 7Kg, AberChoice 7Kg and AberHerald clover 2Kg.

For more information on grass varieties check out the new Irish Pasture Profit Index: 

http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/moorepark/PastureProfitIndex/ppts/TeagascPastureProfitIndex2015.pdf

I hope you're all enjoying the weather, and until next time, keep grazing!

Emlyn

Pre Mating Part 1: Get your calendar out!

As we approach our spring PSM (planned start of mating) I thought I'd write a post about the pre-mating work we do, and why this is one of the most time critical parts of the year!

It seems a bit relentless, but as soon as calving comes to an end, we're already thinking of next season and getting them back in calf. The main tasks can be divided into the following:

1) Heifer mating - Whether you plan to AI or turn the bulls in, now is the perfect time to weigh your maiden heifers to see if they're going to meet target weights to bull. While we have them in the handling yard we like to make the most of the time, so we've been vaccinating, trimming tails, worming and giving them a mineral bolus. Their final weigh-in will be next week. This year anything below 10% of target will be ran with the bulls from Day 1, with the rest getting a fixed time AI. I'm hoping that at least 100/140 will be heavy enough.

2) Pre-mating heats - The past three seasons we have tail painted the heard 42 days before PSM and recorded pre-mating heats. These have helped us get a picture of cows activity which we can consult throughout mating, in case we've missed heats or to spot cystic cows which tend to have very short, frequent cycles.

3) Metricheck and treat - The whole herd has been metrichecked, with cows showing endometritis or "whites", marked and treat accordingly. This is now a weekly practise, with this "dirty" group checked once a week and any non cyclers rechecked during milking. This may seem like overkill, but the key is that I check and treat the cows myself instead of the cost and hassle of calling the vet out.

Metricheck devices are available in the UK, and are an invaluable tool for quick diagnosis in block calving herds.

Treatment then falls into three categories, in order of severity from OK to worst, they are:
1) Washout with a dilute iodine solution, we use pevidine scrub.
2) Metricure antibiotic, no milk withhold.
3) 4 days course of antibiotics, milk withheld, we use Pen & Strep.

April is always a busy month, but the sooner we can set our breeding animals up for mating, the greater our chances of success. Relatively cheap solutions now, can have a huge impact on your eventual performance, as we strive for the virtuous circle of fertility.

In Part 2 I'll discuss the hot topic of intervention, CIDRs, estrumate and the rest!

Calf Rearing: Laborious fun!

Today's post is all about rearing calves. Undoubtedly the most labour intensive task at this time of year!

Calf rearing at Tre Abbot

Now to start off I think I should admit I'm not an expert calf rearer. We run a simple system that suits our facilities and circumstances. There are many ways to rear calves and ultimately if you're happy with your calves and eventual heifers, then you're doing something right!

What I would say, however, is that I've seen calf rearing go wrong and have had to learn quickly which things can have the biggest positive effect on stock-person and animal.

With this in mind, here are my ground rules for calving in order of importance:

1) Colostrum: Every heifer calf is stomach tubed with 4 litres of colostrum within 6 hours of birth. Bulls with 2.5 litres. This is singly the most important thing you can do to improve calf health and mortality rates. Some may prefer to bottle feed, we stomach tube to keep the protocol easy and consistent for staff.

2) Cleanliness: Calves should always have clean bedding, clean forage to pick at, and if fed once a day, clean water to drink. This seems obvious, but fulfilling these requirements first requires good facilities. In the picture above you can see we use our silage clamp to house the calves. Straw bales are used to divide pens, encouraging calves to eat the clean straw walls, instead of soiled bedding. This space also provides good drainage and ease of access for bedding and feeding. In the past I've wasted a lot of time and energy trying to keep substandard pens clean.

3) Static groups: Calves should be grouped with similar aged animals, and not moved from their starting pen. It may be tempting to identify a "slow drinker" early on, and move it to a different group. But in doing so you run a risk. If that calf is burdened by something contagious, like scours or pneumonia, then you can quickly end up transferring this problem to a new group. We prefer to persevere with "slow" calves, and invariably they will eventually catch up.

Their are many other rules I could add to this list, but these are the essentials. My goal is to turn a fragile, milk dependant calf, into a cheap to keep weanling capable of growing well on grass. With this in mind here is a description of our rearing system:

Ad-lib concentrates with a coccidiostat offered throughout.

Day 0: 4L of colostrum

Day 1-10: 2.5L twice a day of whole milk

Day 11-Weaning*: 2.5L once a day, 500g CMR

*Calves can be weaned at 65Kg for a Friesian, but should be kept on ad-lib concentrates and straw until 85Kg.

Start weighing calves from 6 weeks old, if you can weigh a sample once a week it will have the added bonus of encouraging staff, as they can quantify their progress and see that "the end is in sight". 

Weighing this week has shown calves are growing at 1Kg/day, with the eldest group consuming 1.5Kg/day of concentrates.

Every herd will have its own challenges and health status. But I'm a great believer that keeping things simple and repeatable will give consistent results!

Emlyn