Farmer Focus: Late grass flush is a relief after deficit
Jonathan Hughes © Tim Scrivener A warm and wet late autumn in the Midlands has certainly appeased the harsh drought we experienced this summer.
At this stage in the autumn calving calendar, an abundance of grass when we are fully housing stock on a stable ration pre-breeding can be frustrating, as we can’t go out and graze it.
See also: 7 tips on reducing your calving block to six weeks
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Demand has dropped to a negligible figure considering the average farm cover we have available, which I’ve estimated at about 2,800kg dry matter (DM)/ha, although I haven’t had time to measure.
All that’s left grazing are 100 spring calvers being milked once-a-day.
The team are achieving great milk quality and super efficiency in the parlour.
After a bit of training and a few tweaks, we are milking 240 cows an hour, including full teat preparation, with two of us in the pit, making it a real joy to milk.
We completed a forage budget to calculate feedstocks, and reserves will be tight if we have a late turnout/slow spring.
On the grazing platform, we can utilise these higher covers in the spring, but only if soil conditions allow an early turnout.
Most of the grassland further afield and fourth-cut lucerne were silaged in late October.
However, even as late as 13 November we mowed 24ha (60 acres) – balmy conditions for this time of year.
Nevertheless, it gives us a little higher-protein feed in the pit, which is invaluable with organic silage priced at about £200/t DM if we were to buy more in.
The warm spell has allowed the fodder beet to continue growing, so it will be interesting to see how yields compare with previous years when we lift.
Observing weather patterns from more recent years, a warmer and wetter autumn is becoming more common.
In a previous article, I questioned the wisdom of closed-period slurry spreading timings being decided purely by date.
I suggested considering soil temperature and evidence-based, measured growth potential for the crop, when using low application rates of organic manures.
If climate change is going to continue to provide us with extremes, we need to react to optimise DM growth in the extreme shoulders of a season.
Doing this would fill the deficit in dry summers, which seem to be becoming more common.