NOW: TAKE STOCK AND PLAN!

• Was 2024 a bad year? Yes, for many dairy farmers.
• Weather has had a huge effect on morale and farm outcomes.
• While milk price has been good – the second-best year ever – the current year’s costs and bills carried over from 2023 have left some farmers in tight financial binds.
• But actions in October by you, the manager, should not make a bad situation worse; the consequences will carry over into spring 2025.
• Listing out some of the issues, now, being faced by many farms:
  • Average farm covers (AFC) are a long way below target on many farms in mid-September. Result: early housing, long winter and very low closing covers, which will impinge on the availability of spring grass.
  • From 2023, grass grown is down by almost one tonne (t) of dry matter (DM) per hectare (ha) which equals over 5t silage.
    Consequently, many farmers are short of silage.
  • Milk yield is down due to a poor spring and low peak yields: subsequent weather didn’t help.
  • Many bills remain unpaid, particularly merchants and contractors.
  • Finances in the form of available cash, consequently, are very tight.
• Many of the decisions and actions you take in October have a big influence on how to deal with the present and how you get through the early months of 2025.
• What are the key decisions?
  • Planning to stretch the available autumn grass until November.
  • Estimate the amount of silage you have and the amount of silage you require.
  • Analysis of silage for dry matter digestibility (DMD) and mineral levels.
  • Knowing which cows to dry off – and when – in October.
  • Soil analysis so that no field has a pH of less than 6.3 or below Index 3 for potassium (k) and phosphorous (p).
  • With your adviser, check – as soon as possible – your position on fertiliser nitrogen (N) and P purchased against your allowance. Act on the result!
  • Are replacement heifers on target?
  • Financial checks:
    • List out who is owed and the amount.
    • Loans and HP payments to be made.
    • Tax to be paid.
  • Some solutions are suggested below.

PROLONG THE AVAILABLE GRASS

• You have what you have in terms of available grass for grazing; therefore, make absolutely certain that you stretch it out so that grazed grass is in the cows’ diet until well into November, depending on weather and land type.
  • Every day extra cows graze in autumn delivers €2.20 per cow, per day, extra profit – farmers seem to have forgotten how beneficial a small amount of grass each day is for the cow.
    • It will shorten the winter demand for silage.
    • It will reduce demand for slurry storage space.
    • And, it will reduce ‘yard work’.
• The last rotation management is crucial in setting up the farm for next year’s grazing:   
  • Grazing very heavy covers and/or leaving too high covers at closing will result in very poor growth until May of next year.
  • Its management will influence the amount of meal you will feed on this side of Christmas and the first half of next year.
  • Every extra kg DM cover left at closing increases grass availability by 12kg DM. in the spring. Therefore, operate closely to the farm covers recommendations in Table 1.
• As the last rotation will be 40-45 days from start to finish, you must decide on your closing date – challenge yourself on this. If closing is November 20, then the last rotation should start on October 10. 
  • Too many farmers are completing the last rotation too early and losing significant profits. This is particularly so for farmers who have wettish land and are not committed to wet weather grazing techniques.
• The last rotation must begin on October 1-16 and on September 20-25 on wet land.
  • If that doesn’t happen, you won’t have grass next spring.
  • Spring is when you need grass most, as you will be trying to maintain milk yield and increase body condition as cheaply as possible.
  • Therefore, plan your paddock grazing strategy now.
• The first paddocks to be grazed next spring must be dry, be near the milking parlour, and have 800-1,000kg DM/ha of grass cover.
• The following autumn grazing strategy, based on next spring’s grazing routine should be as follows:
  • 30% of milking platform (MP) to be grazed by October 20:
  • These paddocks will be grazed from March 1 to March 17.
  • Grass covers will be 1,200kg DM, further from parlour with good paddock access and dry.
  • Even if these paddocks are not in the correct rota now, graze them, even if light, so that you are set up for spring,
• 30% of MP to be grazed by November 1:
  • These paddocks will be grazed in February next year.
  • They must be the driest on the farm, close to parlour, have many access gaps, recently reseeded, fertile with covers of 800-1,200kg DM.
  • Where some silage is being taken off the MP and high-quality bales are required, these paddocks should be grazed a second time from early April to mid-April before closing for silage and cutting baling before the end of May.
  • Even if these paddocks are not in the correct rota now, graze them, even if light, so that you are set up for spring,
• Remaining 40% to be grazed during November:
  • These will be grazed next spring from March 17 to early April.
  • Effectively all other paddocks on the farm,
  • Simple exercise but it will save you a lot of hassle next February. Plan it now.
• You are now on last rotation, to finish on dry land on November 20-25 (two to three weeks earlier on wet land).
  • Each paddock must be well grazed out to 3.5-4cm (if you leave too much grass it will result in poor pastures next year because of lack of tillering).
• The area, percentage, to be grazed by November 1, depends on the farm stocking rate as outlined in Table 1; otherwise, you will be short of grass next February.
• The following target covers (kg DM/ha) are suggested for different stocking rates.

Table 1: Target covers per cow and average farm cover (AFC).

• To maximise your chances of having grass in the milking cows’ diet until November, the following suggestions should be considered:
  • Sell off cull cows now – a financial waste feeding meals with cull cows eating grass. Cull cows are unlikely to be any more valuable in December than now.
  • Destock by drying off thin cows, cows with high SCC levels, lame cows and heifers during the month and moving away from the milking platform.
  • Use the rotation planner to guide you through October and early November.

THE ROTATION PLANNER IS YOUR ‘GO-TO’ AUTUMN MANAGER!

• This planner is available through PastureBase and all farmers should be using it to manage their grass for the cows every autumn.
• This planner will make things extremely simple and easy to keep cows out until late November while at the same time ensuring adequate grass is carried over to spring.
  • It outlines the number of hectares you allocate to your cows each day from the start of the last rotation to its end.
• It works on the following principles:
  • At least 70%  of the grazing area must be grazed by November 1.
  • This is essential so as to have a long rest period for those fields to grow grass before winter, because over 90% of the grass available for cows next February will have grown this October/November.
  • If the area allocated doesn’t provide enough grass, indicated by post-grazing height, then cows must be supplemented with meals or, preferably, very good quality baled silage.
  • If there is a lot of grass in the area, post-grazing, you either measured the area incorrectly; or you do not have enough cows for the farm; or you are feeding too much silage and/or meals.
• By measuring grass weekly and recording on PastureBase the computer will ‘map’ the area eaten against the plan. It will be very easy see if you are on track.
• If you cannot graze (a wet week, for example), then you will go off target and you must graze double the amount the next week to finish the last rotation on the planned date.
• Never, ever leave lower closing covers than those specified in Table 1. 

PRUDENT SPENDING THIS AUTUMN

• There’s no point in complaining about things being ‘tight’ if you are not prepared to do something about it.
• What must you do now to stay in financial control until April next year?
  • This is the when your first decent milk cheque will come next year.
• Farmers must do a financial budget now that covers from December 31 to late April 2025:
  • Record your present bank balance, adding on creditors (money you owe to people) and subtracting money owed to you.
  • Add on income accruing (milk and cattle sale plus Single Farm Payment, etc.).
  • Estimate your costs, not forgetting bank payments, tax, living expenses and capital expenditure and subtract from balance.
  • From this you will see where you stand financially at the end of 2024.
• Do the same for the period from January 1 to April 20, 2025, which is the most important date.
  
  • This exercise will give you reassurance that you can manage financially, or it will guide you as to what additional steps you need to take to keep everyone happy.
    • Additional working capital may need to be secured, or a short-term loan.
    • Capital investments planned may need to be put on a long-term loan, or on the long finger.
    • Interest-only may be an option.
  • These are cost-control measure that must be strictly adhered to.
• Unfortunately, financial management this autumn is adopting a ‘mean approach’ to unnecessary spending.
• Judicious levels of meal feeding are justified this autumn, but only feed to animals that are productive and require it:
  • Poor milk yielders, less than 0.7kg MS per cow per day should be dried off. Sell if not in calf – maybe sell off anyway – as they are no use if milking so little now. The response to meal is 0.8L (worth 44c) to every one kg meal (costs 30c), and is worthwhile, but the economic response level is at 2-3kg meal per cow per day (no more)!
• Weanlings on target weights need no meals.
  • Take veterinary advice before you start spending on vaccination and routine dosing programmes.
  • Contractors should be paid – if not they may not be available for you next year.
  • Conacre and land rental costs are a severe drain on cashflow when cash is tight, and it is hard to know what to do when cash is tight.
    • One learned message should be: never over-stretch yourself by paying high rental prices and renting too much land.
• You must decide that your ‘fixed costs’ are not fixed, and they must be reduced downwards.
  • Car, electricity, and phone costs must be tackled.
  • Machinery costs are prohibitive on some farms and only spend the bare minimum on repair and maintenance.
• It is extremely doubtful if any capital investment can be made this autumn or next spring on many farms – get your priorities right.

SOIL COMPACTION – THE NEW CHALLENGE!

• Mismanagement of the soil at this time of year can result in serious soil compaction.
• Soil compaction results in the soil not being able to grow as much grass as it can and not being a good carbon sink.
• Soil structure is made up of soil, air and moisture.
  • By poaching you squeeze out the air, so it cannot grow grass and it will also be wetter on the surface.
  • With these facts you should decide on your grazing options:
    • In October, as soils are retaining more moisture, it is vital to graze carefully.
    • Do not graze damaged fields in the wet, as it will compound the structural damage.
    • Some fields may have to be ‘rested’ until March or April.
    • Practice on-off grazing, i.e. three hours grazing after each milking and then remove to the house. They will eat 95% of their grass allowance in this period if they come out with a sharpness to their appetite.
    • Follow all other recommended practices for grazing in difficult conditions.
    • To meet the new environmental requirements, precision management of grazing must be practiced. 
    • On-off grazing involves bringing in the cows twice per day but at a totally different time (two to three hours after they are let out) to our usual times.
    • This ‘bringing-in’ time can be made sociable by milking at 7am and again at 2pm or 3pm in the afternoon.
    • This means that the cows will be able to be brought in off the paddocks at 7-7.30pm in late evening. They will just have finished that bout of grazing and won’t have done any walking damage.
• Never, ever let cows out when it is raining and always bring them in when it starts to rain as they do a lot more walking in the rain and, consequently, more poaching.
  • Use the weather forecast to plan let-out times. It might be raining in the morning, but the forecast might tell you it will be dry in the afternoon. Therefore, wait, and don’t give them any silage.
• If you have farmyard manure, spread it on the headlands now (they suffer most compaction) because the humus will encourage worm activity.

MAKE PLAN FOR UNDERWEIGHT REPLACEMENTS

• In an era of tightening margins, farmers need to identify their ‘weak points’. Many farmers won’t admit it, but replacement heifer management is far below acceptable standards.
• To identify if your standard is good, look at your end-of-year milk-recording summary. The kg MS produced by the first-lactation cows, in a 305-day (converted), should be over 80 per cent of that produced by the fourth-lactation cows.
• Check this and act.
• Replacement heifer management revolves around their actual weights relative to targets (Table 2).

Table 2: Target weights (kg) for replacement weanling (R1s) and in-calf heifers [R2s] in October.

• R1s should get 1-1.5kg meal (16-18% P) to meet target weights on April 1.
  • All animals below target weights must be taken away from main mob and given priority treatment.
  • For every 20kg animals are below target they will need to be fed an extra 100kg meal (16+%P).
  • It must be remembered that animals that are much greater than target weights are also a liability as they will underperform when milking and will be culled out of the herd sooner. Therefore, no meal to them!
• Small R2s need 1-2kg meal (12-14% P). Otherwise, they will calve down too light, resulting in 450L lower milk yields for every 50kg below target weight at calving.
  • Fewer of them will go in calf during the first three weeks of breeding in 2025.
• If you haven’t scanned yet, do so now and sell off R2s that are not in-calf.
  • If more than 7-8% are not in calf ask yourself, why?
• Have you injected cows and heifers for salmonella to prevent abortions?
  
  • If any weanlings show symptoms of hoose (coughing), stomach worms (sticky dung on tail head) or fluke (scouring and other signs) have them treated as they will not maximise weight gain. 
• This same advice has to be applied if checking up on your heifers that are reared by contract.

Brief notes

• Silage should be analysed now for DMD and minerals.
• Consult your vet as to the necessary animal tests – dung samples, blood samples, and milk samples – so you can plan various dosing programmes.
• Take soil samples, so that you can build up soil indices to
  3 and 4.
• You should get Farm Relief Services to examine your herd for lameness, particularly, if you have a history of it.
  • At the very least, walk the cows through a footbath for three consecutive days once or twice per month.
  • Also, there is merit in doing a locomotive survey of the herd as they walk from the parlour.
• Continue the drying-off process of low-yielding cows, thin cows, cows calving in January.
  • Your vet will now be heavily involved in dry cow treatment; but cows with a record of less than 100,000 SCC should be teat sealed.
  • As SCC levels are increasing on many farms, greater thought needs to be put into this decision – high SCC levels result in reduced milk yields.
• Make out a list of maintenance work to be done – one-person or two-person tasks.
• Assess the amount of forage you have relative to requirement:
  • The following is the requirement/animal/day in DM (best way to do it):
    • Cows =11kg; weanlings = 4.7kg; and in-calf heifers = 9kg.
• If you are short, many are, decide on your options NOW.
  • Sell off empty, lame, or poor-yielding cows, surplus R1s and R2s.
  • It might now be the time to ‘take stock’ of your stocking rate on the MP; sell off cows now to reduce stocking rate to 2.9-3.2 cows per ha.
  • Supplement with soya hulls or palm kernal so that no silage is fed until mid to late-November,
  • Buy value-for-money silage, hay or straw to keep minimum roughage in the diet.
  • If you have plenty of feed, mind (no loose or damaged polethene) it as ‘old hay is old gold’.
• Condition score the whole herd now to identify very thin cows; they should be dried off early.

Quote of the month

“From listening comes knowledge; from knowledge comes understanding; from understanding comes wisdom; from wisdom comes wellbeing.” - Maori saying.