NOVEMBER GRASS PLAN DRIVES SPRING GRASS AVAILABILITY!

• Decisions made now will influence, directly or indirectly, grass grown/growth rates to next May.
• Facts drive good decisions. Every extra day’s grazing you achieve in autumn gives you approximately €2.0/cow profit, while the figure is €2.50/cow in springtime. With good planning, even now, you can maximise both. Every day you delay closing in the autumn reduces spring available grass by 12kgs DM, whereas every day you delay grazing in spring only increases yield by 8kgs DM.
• The key Autumn Cover Target Date is December 1.
  • You must decide your opening spring target average farm cover (AFC) for February 1. It will be between 800 and 1100kg DM/ha, depending on stocking rate, calving pattern, soil type, etc.
  • You will know, by consulting PastureBase, all your daily winter growth rates and they generally range between 1-5kg DM/day. From this it is easy calculate your target December 1 target AFC.
  • From this, generally, you will be aiming to have an AFC on December 1 of 650-900 depending on stocking rate (Table 1).
  • If you plan to close up on November 10, then you must work out the amount of grass you expect to grow in November and subtract from the December 1 target so as to know your November 10 closing target.
• There is a case to be made to close one or two paddocks with covers of 1500-1600 so as to have adequate grass in early March.
• If you are not into the detail of grass measurements, contact your adviser immediately, your discussion group or other grass training workshops.
• 60-70% of the farm’s grazing area must be grazed off by November 1. If that is not done and a high proportion remains you must get in extra stock to get that proportion eaten off quickly.
• Therefore, keep grass in cows’ diet as long as possible, ration the silage (as little as possible, to get good ‘graze-outs’) and feed some meals now.
• Measure grass weekly to STOP grazing when target closing covers are arrived at (Table 1). Even grazing one extra paddock at this time of year can have a major impact on AFC.
  • For example. If you have a 40-ha milking platform with an AFC of 550, therefore you have 22,000kg DM available. If you are grazing 2 ha/day with a PGC (pre-grazing cover) of 1200, then you are reducing the available grass available by 2.400kg DM, reducing the total available grass to 19,600 or 490kg DM/ha (19,600 divided by 40). This is way below target.
  • From what we know, growth rates for the last two weeks of November are usually 12kg DM/day. If you are deciding to house all cows on November 15, then you will grow 180kg DM up to December 1. Therefore, you AFC at closing on November 15 should be 570kg DM so as to be 750kg DM on December 1.
  • A grass budget must also be done – get help from your adviser.

Table 1: Target Covers per cow and Average farm cover (AFC)

*AFC on December 1

• The remaining paddocks to target for grazing should be:
  • Clover paddocks because we need to have less than 450-500kg DM on them on December 1 so that we maintain clover levels in them in 2027.
  • Paddocks to be grazed in late March to early April or,
  • Paddocks that are ear-marked for slurry in early spring.
• Due to winter feed issues the temptation to ‘graze on’ late will be strong but this must be avoided at all costs in order to have adequate grass available next February.
• As ground conditions this autumn have been excellent, it is an opportune time to spread lime. Be guided by your most recent soil test but remember a lorry load of lime will do 10-12 acres.
• Fields that are very low in P & K should get a basic dressing now.
• Both the lime, P & K will help these fields grow more grass over the winter.

TEAT SEAL ALL COWS: BAR EXCEPTIONS!

• This must be the policy: teat seal all your cows at drying off except cows with high SCC readings.
• Firstly, however, go to the AHI website and view the videos to refresh your memory on the correct way to do this task.
• As the cure rate of mastitis/scc is 50-70% with dry cow treatment, this is one cost, €3-7/cow, that should not be avoided.
• To use an antibiotic dry cow treatment, you must get a prescription from your vet now, but you must:
  • Teat seal cows that don’t need antibiotic.
  • Use on cows who have had no clinical mastitis during the year and on the last milk recording SCC test were under 100,000 and consistently under it during the year.
  • The overuse of antibiotics is a major concern for farmers and the general public.
• Dry off cows that:
  • Are within 56 days of calving.
  • Have a daily milk yield of 7 litres (0.7kg MS), or less, per day.
  • That have SCC levels of over 300,000.
  • First calver that have milked for 270 days.
  • Thin cows, being particularly concerned about high yielders, who ‘milk off their backs’.
• Drying off cows is not an easy task and much care, time and planning must be set aside for the job. Don’t do more than 20 cows in one go because people lose their concentration.
• The following suggestions should be taken on board:
  • Treat all quarters of each cow with the same treatment.
  • A milk recording one month before dry-off, plus a sensitivity test, has merit.
  • Abruptly dry off all cow – no OAD milking.
  • Milk out the quarter fully before infusing the dry cow antibiotic/sealant.
  • Disinfect the teat end, starting from the back teats – vigorously rub the teat end for 10-15 seconds with cotton wool soaked in methylated spirits, starting with the furthest away teats.
  • Do not contaminate the nozzle of the antibiotic tube before insertion into the teat canal, starting from the front teats.
  • Infuse the contents of the antibiotic tube into the quarter – hold teat-end firmly between thumb and forefinger and with other hand, gently massage the antibiotic upwards into the teat (NOTE: This is not done with teat seal).
  • Teat spray (post milking teat disinfectant) treated quarters immediately after infusion at a rate of 20 cc/cow.
  • Record cow number, date and product details of all dry cow treatments.
  • Mark the cow (leg band or spray paint on udder) so that cows that have received dry cow antibiotic therapy can be readily recognised.
  • Post treatment standoff cows on a clean yard for one hour.
  • Maintain dry cows separate and put dry cows in clean, dry paddocks (particularly for the first two weeks after drying off) to reduce teat exposure to environmental mastitis bacteria.
  • The cow is at a greater risk of new infection for the first three weeks after drying off.
  • Keep a close eye on cows to identify new infections.
• It is not advised to teat seal heifers unless, historically, more than 2-3% of heifers have calved down with mastitis. But, if being done, it must be done extremely carefully and is a tough job.
• You should cull cows that:
  • Had three or more clinical cases this year and had 2-3 high SCC readings during the year.
  • It is a wase of money treating these cows as they will continue to spread infection to other cows next year.

DIVIDE UP COWS BY BODY CONDITION SCORE

If you did not body condition score (BCS) cows in October (the advised date) you must do so immediately and divide up the cows at housing as follows and feed as per Table 2. Divide up your cows into three groups, based on condition score:

• Group (1): BCS 2.75 - 3.25
  • Most of the herd will be in this group and will need no special attention with silage 68% DMD or better.
• Group (2): BCS 2.75 or less:
  • For sure these cows need meal, the amount depending on the quality of silage (see Table 1) and, if calving in February, must be dried off in early November. A cow that is 2.75 BCS now and due to calve in early February in a BCS of 3.25 and being fed 68% DMD silage; she has 84 days to calving of which there are 40 days where no BCS is added. Therefore, she only has 44 ‘effective’ days for meal feeding and she needs to put on extra 0.5 BCS or approximately 25-30kgs of weight. This will require 150+kgs of meal or 3.4 kgs/cow/day for the 44 days. Therefore, the meal feeding period is too short.
  • But thin cows on good/very good silage need no meals if calving late February.
• Group (3): BCS 3.25+ cows:
  • Cows that are very fat at calving down will underperform by milking poorly and have a lower in-calf rate next year.
  • Some farmers push on the left-over silage from groups (1) or (2) to these animals.
  • Other farmers will feed only 5kgs DM per day of silage with straw. That means only giving them 25-30kgs of fresh (20% DM) silage per cow per day plus 4-5 kgs fresh straw.

Table 2: Recommendations For Dry Cow Feeding (10-12 Weeks Dry Period)

Sil = Silage Restr = Restrict

• Some farmers see these three grouping requirements as impractical, but it will result in 3-4 more cows per 100 being in-calf, less calving problems, less feed wasted on fat cows and higher peak yield next April/May.
  • If separate grouping is an issue with you, then, you must invest a small amount of money in this requirement.
  • This piece of advice will reduce the silage requirement – very important this year.

REPLACEMENT HEIFER CARE

• First things first: weigh your weanling (called R1s) and your incalf (R2s) heifers now to see how they compare with the targets (Table 3). Targets: R1s and R2s should be 40% and 80% respectively of their mature weights.

Table 3: Target weights (Kgs) for R1’s and R2’s on 1st November

• Animals under target should get extra meal as per Tables 3 and 4.
  • With good silage, for every 10kgs R1s are under target they need 40kgs of extra meal and for every 10kgs R2s are under target they need an extra 60kgs meal over a period to bring them to target.
  • Because of the good response to low level meals feeding, feed at least 1kg/day to all R1s until January.
  • Be aware of the % protein levels in meal when related to the % protein in silage (Table 5).

Table 4: Meal requirements for Weanling Heifers (R1s) on Silage.

• Therefore, know your animal weights and the silage quality being fed.
• All this information is essential to bring to the attention of contract calf rearer’s so that subsequent hastle doesn’t arise.

Table 5: Protein levels (%) in meal required to supplement silage of different % Proteins to R1s

• Many farmers give the Lepto vaccine now or earlier to R1s to minimise spring work.
• Mix the in-calf heifers with the 1st calvers so as to minimise stress now and particularly after calving when stress then can have a detrimental effect on her subsequent weight gain.

PREVENT HEALTH ISSUES

• Firstly, cows need good facilities – the details are overlooked by many farmers:
  • Each cow has a cubicle, i.e. 50 cows need 50-55 cubicles.
  • Each cow has 2 ft. of head space if being fed meals.
  • Each cow has 0.75 to 1.0 ft. silage feeding space.
  • Cubicle and yard surfaces are in good repair, kept clean every day.
  • Access to feeding area is adequate, and not restricted, with an access passage, 6ft wide, from cubicles to silage area every 5-6 cubicles.
  • Cows have adequate ventilation, which is enough inlet and outlet area, with no draughts.
  • You should walk and observe your cows daily, to ensure none are sick, lame or stressed, are free of mastitis and putting on body condition.
• Because parasites reduce animal performance, we must deal with them.
• Weanlings must be dosed at housing for ostealgia type two stomach worms.
• You never know when fluke hits; therefore, get a dung sample tested by your vet; but, if in doubt, dose all stock, including cows, for fluke. Remember, all fluke doses have a milk withholding period, so it is best not done until drying off.
• All animals will need to be treated for lice at housing.
• Lameness must be addressed and prevented by:
  • Avoiding overcrowding, poor ventilation, with bad surfaces
  • and poor nutrition management.

• Getting the Farm Relief Service to examine the whole herd and deal with lame cows has real merit – experts know what they are doing!
• A footbath three consecutive days every month will have merit if there is a problem on the farm.

• Consult your vet on dosing/vaccination management now to alleviate these tasks in spring.
• The following reminders may help:

• Have a well thought out preventative programme in place for all animal health and welfare issues: do this in consultation with your vet.
• Test faeces for fluke and lungworm at the regional laboratory on five individual animals costing (€4 each for each parasite); also, for coccidiosis if that is a problem on your farm.
• Test aborted foetus, if you have any, for Brucellosis and Salmonella.
• Do a mastitis culture and sensitivity test on the milk from 5-6 cows, to know which dry cow tube to use.
• If heifers and mature cows have not been done for salmonella in September, there is no need to do them now as the risk of Salmonella abortion has passed.
• Generally, dry cow minerals will not be fed to spring calving cows in November but feed minerals all through winter to in-calf heifers not on meals.
• Badger-proof cattle sheds, as there is now evidence suggesting foraging by badgers into sheds during winter spreads T.B.

CASH TIGHT: OPTIONS!

• High costs and lower milk prices will have had a serious effect on the cash available this autumn. When you are heavily borrowed, greater than €2,000/cow, generating low profits with high living expenses, cash available for productive purposes becomes an issue on farms.
• Can you free up money from any source to avoid having to rely on negative thinking? The solutions/options I suggest might seem drastic but consider the consequences if you don’t act.
• Deposit accounts must be raided:
  • They are usually put there for the ‘rainy day’ and now it is here for some; because in the good times we must set aside a ‘rainy-day fund’. They are yielding less than 1% interest whereas they could earn 15-25% return if invested on the farm or 5-6 % if used to pay off some critical loans.
  • Children’s deposits/savings or children’s allowance should not be immune to review, as they are all part of the farm family team. Money in their deposits won’t be much good if the farm goes to the brink of insolvency.
• Pension Savings don’t fit this analysis.
• Sell what you can including less productive animals:
  • Cull cows now, because they make minuscule extra profit to fatten.
  • All non-replacement dry stock.
  • Sell surplus in-calf heifers but make absolutely certain you don’t want them for expansion next year because that is one of the few ways you will increase your income/cashflow if stocking rate allows.
• If you can’t generate any cash from these sources, you must go to your bank and borrow money to pay off ‘good management bills’.
  • Make your case with cashflow projections for next year and longer.
  • If your credit worthiness is low, you will need a good accountant or adviser working in your corner.
  • There are many sources of credit out there other than banks, so take advice on which suits best.
• Now you have some bit of cash freedom, let us look at where to invest:
  • Soil fertility (you must bring Lime P & K levels up to target), animal health and animal body condition are the main areas.
  • Invest time in financial management planning and planning the autumn/spring grass budgets.
• Many farmers and some co-op personnel are pushing farmers to buy meal to push out milk to improve cashflow. This might seem a good idea and seems an easy message to sell but, generally, it is not economically viable.
  • A carry over of large unpaid meal bills into next spring is the very last thing you need to be doing.
  • Research shows that for every kg of meal fed we get back 0.7kg of milk (some cows are less efficient) and that we should not feed more than 2-3 kgs meal/cow/day in the autumn. Research also found that for every €1 you spent on feeding meal the actual cost is €1.60. This latter makes meal feeding less than break even.
  • In summary, feed 2kg meal with almost all grass to any cows you justify keeping milking, otherwise, dry off when producing less than 0.7kgs MS/cow/day.
• I think, if this year, after following a great year, proves anything, it is that you must develop a low-cost system and ‘stick with it’ as a system of farming.

EXTRA BITS OF ADVICE

• Get your Profit Monitor started and have it ‘done and dusted’ by December.
  • Little or no sales or costs will be accrued between now and year end; you can easily estimate those figures,
  • You can analyse the costs/profits and use them for your financial planning for next year.
• Maintenance work while weather is good:
  • Farm roadways, paddocks fences/entrances should be repaired.
  • Make sure lighting around the yard is good.
  • Is your farmyard a safe working place for staff?
  • Is your farmyard ‘thief proof’?

MESSAGE FOR THE MONTH

“Methane emissions by livestock have a negative impact on the Earth’s temperature: killing all of the Earth’s 1.6 billion cattle would change the global temperature by only 0.04 Degrees C.”

Happer & Wijngaarden

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