REVIEW 2025 NOW

• This has been a very good year for dairy farmers but next year looks challenging.
  • Milk price is predicted to be 40c/L or less and costs are now near 40c/L.
  • Weather, generally, was very good and price of inputs did not increase significantly.
  • Invest surplus cash wisely – advisable to maintain a ‘hard times kitty’.
• To review the year, do the profit monitor or some similar financial analysis – this is a MUST-DO task in December.
• Examine your ICBF data (information on calving, fertility, EBI, milk recording, etc.) on the ICBF website, comparing it with 2024 and other discussion group members.
• Analyse your grass yield data on PastureBase.
  • Has the grass grown increased from 2024 and how do you compare with other good farmers.
  • What factors, other than weather, contributed to your performance?
  • Identify the poorest yielding paddocks for the last three to four years and plan to reseed,
  • Get your adviser or discussion group to critique your performance against a high standard of benchmarks.
  • You are now in a good position to make your plans for 2026.

YOU MUST ‘ACTIVELY MANAGE’ YOUR FARM IN 2026

• Most farmers do not ‘actively manage’ their farms.
• This involves making long-term plans compatible with personal, farm, and environmental goals while making short-term plans for managing grassland, breeding, and all components of animal welfare.
  • Farmers can sometimes manage things on the hoof. This is not efficient nor effective management and leads to profit that will always be below that which is possible.
  • It also frustrates family and staff.
  • Let’s spell out what you must do and put timelines on the tasks.

Farm financial planning

• December: Complete the 2025 Dairy Profit Monitor (DPM).
• December: Review the 2025 DPM with your group or adviser.
• December: Farm physical plan with targets for 2026; that is, the stock you are allowed carry under the Nitrate Directive.
• December: Five-year financial plan.
• December: Annual cost control plan for 2026.
  • Last day of every month, review all bills, pay them and update your cost control plan.
  • Decide what items/commodities need to be purchased and order.
• In October, for the following year or as now for this year, calculate your fertiliser, meal, milking parlour needs, etc. and get three quotations from merchants before purchase.

• Farm grassland planning for 2026.
  • January: Spring rotation plan (on PastureBase).
  • January: Spring grass feed budget (on PastureBase).
  • January: Farm grassland plan for whole year (programme available), to conform with the nitrate allowances.
  • January: Do your annual fertiliser plan based on soil results.
  • February 1 and every Monday for whole year: Walk the farm and measure grass and make weekly paddock grazing plan.
  • April to November: Use the grass wedge to manage grass quality and availability.
  • August: Do winter fodder budget (on PastureBase).
  • August: Do autumn rotation plan (on PastureBase).
  • August: Do autumn feed budget (on PastureBase).
• Farm breeding and fertility plan for year.
  • January: Cow and heifer breeding plan.
  • April 1: Sire advice planner to choose AI bulls.
• Farm mastitis management plan for year
  • January: Make spring/summer mastitis plan.
  • September: Make dry cow mastitis plan.
• Farm body condition scoring (BCS) plan for year
  • Six times per year as follows.
  • Early October: Mid-December; Mid-March; Mid-April; Mid-May; Mid-June.
• Farm vaccination/dosing plan for year
  • With veterinary help make a herd health plan for all stock.
• Farm work and holiday rote plan for year
  • Do weekly rota for all staff every Friday, including family.
  • Stitch in holiday two-week break for all staff, including yourself.
• Staff requirements
  • December: Plan your annual labour requirement, giving yourself extra ‘cover’ for next spring.
• List out by month (and date) when insurance, car tax, bank loans etc have to be paid.
• Do we have to do any building this year?
  • If so, set the plans in motion to do so early in year. Decide on your needs (use your discussion group to guide you), do drawings, get planning permission and get a contractor to do it if at all possible (too many farmers are doing this themselves with adverse effects on family life and personal health).
• Make similar plans for other tasks that need to be planned.
  • Reseeding dates (April-May) with clover, mixed species or conventional ryegrass.
• All of these specific dates MUST be written up on an annual wall planner for 2026.
  • Ask your discussion group for help or talk to your adviser/consultant.
• The following quotation is worth remembering: “The great thing about doing no analysis, preparation or planning is that a poor income the following year comes as a complete surprise.”
  • How true that is in dairy farming. Let’s do something about it!
• There is at least a week of ‘office work’ in what I am recommending. It is hard work but the pay-off is huge – €500 to €1,000 per hour. Yard work, etc. won’t deliver more than €20-€40 per hour, therefore, prioritise the above and get help with it.
• I can guarantee that with this active management plan you will maintain your income next year despite all the gloomy pressures.

EXAMINE COW CONDITION AGAIN NOW!

• The second BCS of the cow’s annual (six in total) assessment takes place NOW.
  • It will be a combination of visual and/or handling.
  • In-calf heifers and weanlings need the same visual attention.
• The outcome of this task will be to group and feed differently animals of different scores to achieve the required condition score at calving.
• We are nearing the start of calving, so it is vital to carefully examine cow body condition so that you don’t have too many thin or fat cows at calving.
  • Such an examination now verifies the quality of your silage and feeding programme this autumn, and if not up to scratch you must do something about it!
• Thin cows need your attention. Why?
  • They will calve down thin.
  • They will milk less: over 450L for every 1 BCS below target, and will have lower constituents.
  • They will be thinner at bulling time and consequently 17-20 per cent more of them will not go into calf.
  • Separate out and feed 1-3kg meal per day. This is a must-do job!
• Fat cows are a liability. Why?
  • This could be a big problem next spring as silage quality is very good and cow BCS, in most cases, is good.
  • A fat cow has a body score of 3.5 or more.
  • They will get fatter from now to calving.
  • They may suffer more calving problems.
  • At or after calving they will suffer from more health problems such as milk fever (cost = €300/case), tetany (cost = €600/clinical case), ketosis (cost = €190/clinical case) and acidosis (cost = €270/case).
  • Feed intakes post calving will be reduced by 2kg DM/day resulting milk yield being reduced by 450L or more and also lower fat and protein percentage.
  • Fertility will be poorer because they will lose too much weight between calving and bulling – 0.5 BCS loss, results in submission rates being reduced by up to 49%, and six-week pregnancy rates reduced by up to 20%.
  • You will be wasting valuable (very expensive) food on them.
  • What must you do? You must separate them from other cows, restrict their feed to 5-6kg DM per day (20-30kg of 20% DM of fresh silage daily) plus 1-2kg DM straw.

PREVENT LAMENESS AT ALL COST!

• Lameness adds huge financial losses to a farm business.
  • Digital lameness: €106 per case.
  • Inter-digital lameness: €98 per case.
  • Sole ulcers: €144 per case
• These are the direct costs of lameness but the cost of thin cows not milking to potential; not going back in calf and wasting feed are not included.
  • Therefore, lameness must be prevented and controlled.
• What are the causes of lameness?
• Treatment of lame cows is a waste of money if a preventative-care programme doesn’t exist on your farm.
  • The causes must be rectified immediately – a really important maintenance task for this winter/spring.
  • Run scrapers often to keep passageways clean and have one cubicle for every cow.
• Good ventilation entails having 1 sq. ft. inlet per cow and 2 sq. ft outlet per cow all the time and not just opening doors when you think the atmosphere in the cubicle house is stuffy.
  • Go and check this sooner rather than later as it a major problem on farms.
• Experiments have shown that not all cows that had sole ulcers were lame and that first calving heifers were likely to be severely affected by lameness.
• Routine hoof pairing must be part of a preventative-care programme.
  • It is suggested that farmers should use an expert for this purpose during December – the Farm Relief Services.
  • It will help to reduce the number of expensive firefighting calls and ensure low culling rates due to lameness.
• Mortellaro – digital dermatitis – has become more common recently.
  • It is a virus condition around the feet resulting in the foot being badly swollen (not hot) between the claws, with a bad smell.
  • An alamycin spray every day for a few days will clear it up, using the following procedure – wash, dry, spray and dry.
  • In more severe cases, a footbath of lyncomycin, tetracyline, or opticide will cure the problem, but do not overuse antibiotics and alternate these products to prevent resistance developing – use them under veterinary supervision.
• An ordinary footbath (4L of formalin or 4-5kg bluestone or zinc sulphate in 200L of water) on three consecutive days, morning and evening every month is recommended where lameness is an ongoing problem.
• Walk through all cattle/cow pens twice per week to identify animals with tender feet or who are off colour.
  • This enables you to act in time.
• Remember if an animal is lame in the two back feet she won’t show obvious symptoms, except stiffness.
  • It is important to analyse others causes of lameness.
  • Poor farm roadways – walk all roadways, identify problem areas/sections and repair when weather suitable.
  • Poor concrete areas used by cow; identify and repair as soon as possible.
  • Identify problem cows and cull if they are consistent offenders. With cull cow prices being good, any cow with health issues should be culled.
  • You must educate whoever is bringing the cows to and from the parlour on the correct way to way to ‘drive’ cows – quads tend to add to the problem. Install a Batt-Latch so that cows can come in themselves (cost €450-€800) – a great gadget!
  • Genetics plays its part, therefore, breed replacements from cows and bulls with good health ratings.

MANAGE THE SILAGE PIT

• Silage pit management greatly influences the ‘freshness’ of silage being fed daily.
  • Remember air rots silage, so, you must manage the pit face to minimise air penetration.
  • Use a shear grab or saw to cut down or remove silage from the face, so that air penetration is minimised. This is particularly important if the Ph is poor.
  • Only disturb small areas of the pit at each feeding.
  • Do not leave layers of ‘tossed’ silage exposed to the air.
  • Prevent water running down the face of the silage pit by rolling back the polythene.
  • But weigh down this polythene tightly on top and at the sides.
  • Too many farmers pull down the polythene over the face of the pit. This is wrong, as it causes the glasshouse effect, which results in quicker rotting and fungal growth, nothing could be worse for silage intake, resulting in silage intakes being reduced by 1-3kg DM.
• Moorepark research has shown the following:
  • Cows spend six hours per day eating silage.
  • Cows have three feeding activity peaks: sunrise, feed placement, and feed push-up.
  • Cows will generally only spend 10 minutes queuing for silage – they then get fed up.
  • Severe wind and rain on exposed feeding area reduced silage intakes by 4kg DM per head per day.
  • Cows housed in groups of 24 eat 1-3kg DM per head per day more silage than those in groups of eight, because they eat faster, more frequently but spend less time eating.
  • Cows spend longer feeding during the day.
• The implications may be worth applying and remember thousands of euros are lost annually on poor silage pit management.
  • Beware of the risks when feeding mouldy silage.
  • It can cause abortion in pregnant cows; therefore, do not feed them with it.
  • It will cause serious chest problems for some farmers, therefore, always wear a face mask.

SERVICE THE MILKING MACHINE

• Your milking machine works on average 1,200+ hours per year
  (= 53 full days/year). Your car does half that work and how many times is it serviced?
• Most milking machines have one or two major faults. Your milking machine should be serviced twice per year. The consequences of not servicing it are very serious.
  • Slower milking.
  • Huge increase in clinical mastitis.
  • Huge increase in SCC levels.
  • More cull cows.
  • Reduced milk yield (6-10%).
• This month (December) and January are the ideal times to do it.
• Get it serviced by a qualified IMQCS technician. You must get a full written report from the technician, and you must act on the recommendations.
  • I must stress the importance of this because it is not being done as regularly as it should.

FEED MINERALS FROM 40 DAYS BEFORE CALVING

• Farmers starting to calve cows from February 1 will need to start feeding dry cow minerals from December 20 (40 days before calving).
  • It is a very cost-effective investment.
  • Late calving cows don’t need minerals for another four to six weeks (save money).
• Dry cow minerals are necessary to prevent:
  • Retained placenta (cost = €400/case), due to selenium, vitamin E, or iodine deficiency.
  • Calf deaths (cost = €450+/calf), due to copper/iodine deficiency.
  • Milk fever (cost = €300/case) due to too much calcium.
  • Urine drinking due to sodium (salt) deficiency.
  • Reduced appetite due to several minerals and vitamins.
  • Poor thrive due to several minerals and vitamins.
• Feed 100 grams per cow of pre-calving mineral.
  • Follow the suppliers instruction on the quantity to feed,
  • Spread half in morning and half in evening on top of the silage.
• Make sure your mineral mix meets your deficiency requirements on the farm:
  • Most silage is deficient in iodine, copper, sodium, selenium, cobalt, phosphorous, and magnesium.
  • More recently the major elements, particularly phosphorous, are deficient in silage.
  • A silage analysis can identify your problem minerals, and it costs €90, good value!

CHECK OUT YOUR GRAZING FACILITIES

• Not enough roadways?
• Paddocks too long and narrow?
• Mucky roadways?
• Mucky gaps?
• Not enough entrances to paddocks?
• Poorly maintained roadways?
• No water in paddocks. Water troughs very poorly sited?
• Big silage fields with no water trough in middle?
• Fences poorly maintained?
• Paddocks too small because of extra cows in herd?
• Without having these facilities optimised (near perfect) farmers will not be able to optimise grass utilisation in February, March, April or in the autumn.
  • The return on money spent on these facilities will be 15-20%.
  • Go out to your paddocks today and make a list of what you need to do.
  • The Farm Relief Service can do most of your maintenance work.
• Get a 25-inch map of your farm.
  • Work out with your adviser or mapping specialist where to put a roadway, the number of paddocks you need, two or more entrances to paddock, water troughs, etc.
• Poor road surfaces slow down the movement of cows to and from paddocks:
  • Time your cow’s movement and compare with that of your neighbour or even their movement through various sections of the roadway.
• To get the most from silage fields, cow walks 1-2m wide should be strategically placed through big silage fields.
  • As silage fields must be grazed early and late in the year, cow walks are essential.

Bits and pieces

• Grass management: It is essential to do your final grass measurement of the year now. This will enable you to:
  • Establish accurately on PastureBase the amount of grass grown on the farm this year on the farm and on each individual paddock.
  • Establish the amount of grass grown on the farm over the winter, which is a key planning piece of information.
  • The following are the target closing covers (heaviest covers in brackets) for various stocking rates on the milking platform:
    • 2.5 cows/ha: 650-750kg DM (1,400-1,500).
    • 3.0 cows/ha: 750-850kg DM (1,500-1,600).
    • 3.5 cows/ha: 750-900kg DM (1,600-1,700).
  • Clover paddocks should have no more than 500-600 average farm scivers (AFC) on December 1.
  • Because of all the rain in November (animals housed) and the good growth rates, some farms have a lot higher covers that those listed. What to do if and when fields are dry for traffic?
    • Clover swards should definitely be grazed.
    • Graze off any excessively high covers as they will only rot over the winter.
    • Ballyhaise always leaves a few high covers, 1,700-1,900kg DM so as to have a ‘bulk’ of grass when 50-60% of cows are at grass.
  • If you need lime and the ground conditions are good, spread lime.
  • If you have ragwort, now is a good time to spray with MCPA or 24 D
• Use ICBF mastitis information and milk recording to cull off chronically infected cows. That is cows with two to three clinical cases during the year plus two to three SCC readings over 500,000.
• Feed (1-2kg meal) to replacement R1s to gain 0.7kg/day and reach 320+ kg on May 1.
• Have you your health and safety plan in order.
• Have you made a will or does it need to be updated.

Quote of the month

“In any farm business where the person at the helm has insufficient personal ability, which is not offset with top advice or a very good property or a very low debt or a very capable spouse, or a combination of these, then what you have is a family business that is heading for failure.”

Season’s greetings

To all my readers, I wish you a very happy Christmas.