Spring is Here!.....Or is that just a Rumour!

Most UK & Irish grass based dairyfarmers are struggling for grass. Pasture growth up until the past week has been next to nothing due to the very cold soil temperatures. The lack of moisture in most of the country has not helped pastures either. Soil temperatures need to be about 5 degrees C for Ryegrass to grow & above 8 degrees for clover to grow. Soil temperatures have only just risen so there has been NO growth.
However there are encouraging signs that the daily weather is changing......at long last!

Winter Damage to Pastures.

Most dairyfarm pastures have been damaged this winter by the extended cold & freezing temperatures. Cows appear to be grazing these fields really well despite the damaged plant tissue.

The big question is what damage has actually occurred?

There is a difference between winter damage & winter kill. Winter kill is where the meristem or growing point is killed by the freezing temperatures (ice rather than snow). The meristem or crown in ryegrass is very close to the ground & undamaged by grazing down to 1500 residual. It appears that this winter we have had pasture plant tissue damage & very little winter kill where the meristem has died. Most of the lower fertility grasses eg annual meadow grasses have been damaged & may explain why grazed pastures look so open. So very few ryegrass tillers have been lost.(Scott Laidlaw at AFBI Crossnacreevy agrees)

Once growth starts new tillers will be initiated..this is already happening. If we continue to get frosts this may effect the flowering of ryegrasses. Since 1997 at Aberystwyth Alan Lovatt tells me that the number of days to flowering have been reducing as we have had warm springs. So continued cold temperatures may possibly delay heading of ryegrasses.

Too early to say if pastures need additional ryegrasses....maybe clover will fill the gaps left by the killing off of the meadow grasses.

There is a marked difference on most farms between pasture that has been grazed & those fields still to be grazed. All the growth is happening on grazed pasture whereas the ungrazed pasture is still going backwards.

It is critical that cows don't go short of feed & lose body Condition Score in the month prior to mating. Most farms are faced with buying feed even though grazing conditions have been excellent. Many silage clamps are virtually empty. Time to Measure Pastures.

Ben, Sam, Michael & George from the DMS course for Herdsmen were out this week at Reaseheath College practising with the pasture platemeter. It's time everyone got out & measured pasture. Make sure new staff are using the platemeter correctly & that everyone on the team understands the Pasture Wedge Graphs. If you dont have them on your computer email me tiphillips@aol.com

PASTURE COVERS & GROWTH around the UK

http://www.ruralni.gov.uk/grasscheck

Cumbria Still using Spring Rotation Planner, Soil Temp 6.7 degrees

Staffordshire 1725 Average Farm Cover, 14 daily growth

Staffordshire 1650, 15, Soil Temp 8.5

Herefordshire 1650

Herefordshire 1780, 7

Monmouthshire 1684, 21

Pembrokeshire 1801, 20

Pembrokeshire 1690 Av Farm Cover, 6+kgsDM growth per ha, 7.5 degrees C

Gloucestershire 1861, 19, 8.7

Wiltshire 1840, 19

Dorset 1554, 2

Sussex 1671, 18, 8.2

Devon 1650, 5+

Cornwall 1840, 40

Cornwall 1900, 50, 9.0 degrees C

Limerick, Ireland 1750 Av Farm Cover, 13kgsDM/ha daily growth

So book your tropical holidays now...........warmest destinations are either Lizard Point Cornwall or Lydney in Gloucestershire! C'Mon the sunshine!!!!

Do You want Grass Fed Milk in Wales...A response to the Welsh Assembly Report on Climate Change

Last week the Welsh Assembly released a report on the future of Agriculture in Wales. This report has serious implications for all Welsh (probably all UK dairy Farmers too) dairy farmers as Prof Gareth Wyn Jones & his research group has recommended fully housed dairy cows 365 days a year. Wales has an international obligation to reduce CO2 emissions. The Welsh Farmers Union has agreed to senario 5 which includes fully housing cows in the near future....this is a surprise & one wonders how they made this decision!
Tough decisions need to be made about how Agriculture must change to reduce CO2 emissions.
But are you part of the food debate?

Will the public accept dairy cows being housed full time?

Or do you want Milk & Dairy Products to come from grass fed cows out grazing pasture?

You need to have your say! What do you want to happen to dairying in Wales & the UK?

The Key points I want to make on behalf of the low input pasture based dairy farmers are :-

1. Wales has a Comparative Economic Advantage in pasture based systems of dairying....Wales has NO comparative Economic Advantage in growing either cereal crops or protein crops such as soya nor any advantages in fully housed TMR dairying....not now & not I suspect anytime in the future. TMR rarely includes fresh pasture & is heavily reliant on cereals & imported protein from Brasil & Argentina.

2. Currently the financial returns on high input systems are very marginal. This will rapidly deteriorate as world agriculture struggles to meet human food demands & renewable energy production. What the Americans refer to as the "Perfect Storm"!

Within decades world Agriculture will struggle to fed the world population.
I would expect world cereal & protein prices to rapidly escalate & even be in short supply. This would leave the Welsh dairy farmers extremely vulnerable to outside price fluctuations. Wales produces primarily manufactured dairy products.

3. Given the expectation of the world facing chronic food & water shortages surely we should be looking forward to the dairy export opportunities that Wales will be able to capitalise on if we can operate successfully in new environmental constraints. In fact we could argue that Wales has a moral obligation to help feed the world as Wales may well be advantaged by global warming cf to Africa & the countries such as Australia who are already extremely vulnerable to droughts & water shortages.

4. We accept that Wales MUST change. Not changing is not an option. However we believe that many of the points made in the Welsh Assembly report have already been implemented on farm by the innovative grass based dairy farmers in the Discussion Groups.

For example....they all calve heifers at 22 months of age. The fertility of these same herds is such that the average number of lactations is in excess of 5 lactations per cow. Compare this to the UK average of approx 2.5 lactations.
The current average production in Wales is approx 6200 litres (from 2 tonnes of concentrates per cow). If we assume say 3 lactations then the total lifetime production is approx 18600litres. The grass based dairy farmers average say 5200litres X 5 lactations = 26000 litres lifetime production. ie +40%.

5. Most of the information/technology is already available to assist Wales & Welsh dairy farmers to make significant & profitable changes to their businesses NOW which would result in major reductions in CO2 emissions.....eg Calving heifers at 22 months, improve fertility by cross breeding to highly fertile breeds, reductions in Nitrogen fertilizer & reduction in purchased cereals & replace with home grown pasture. Block calving both autumn & spring are essential.
The way to get this adoption on farm is through effective Discussion Groups on farm with highly effective professional group facilitation. It would require the commitment of farmers, Welsh Assembly & the dairy processors.
6. We acknowledge serious problems with both the lack of pasture based research & current deficiencies with the IPPC systems of calculation CO2 emissions & LCA. The current inventories neglect the imported dairy food rations & the LCA in the country of origin. They also severely under estimate the LCA CO2 emissions of farm buildings, concrete & farm machinery.

7. To address the lack of pasture based research issue I would urge both Research & the Welsh Assembly to work with say 20 of these efficient pasture based dairy farmers to initiate on farm data collection & on farm research projects to collect the "gap" information. In a similar way that Dr Christina Marley is already doing with pasture based emissions. I am sure the top 20 farmers....both conventional & organic would in fact volunteer themselves into such a project.

One obvious starting point would be the measurement of 30cm Soil Carbon Baselining of soils under intensive grazing. This baselining data should include separate 'A Horizon' (Top Soil) depth measurements.

8. Can I both support the report in regard to on farm forestry & tree planting. This could be implemented immediately by the Welsh Assembly using the Australian Landcare movement as a very good & effective model. In Australia this has been fully accepted & adopted by the farming community ( there are even urban programs too) with millions of trees being planted each year on farm to the benefit of both the farm businesses & the environment.
http://www.landcarevic.net.au/

9. NZ research by Dr Garry Waghorn et el at AgResearch has shown that when LCA is included (rather than methane alone) pasture based diets when harvested directly by the grazing dairy cow are likely to have lower total emissions than TMR systems.............& this does not include Soya from Argentina as NZ can grow their own protein crops.
Much of the research & press reports when referring to methane from pasture in fact refer to some early work in Queensland Australia that compared dry unimproved Rangeland grasslands with grain (grain can not be fed alone as in a TMR it requires the addition of roughage.)

10. We acknowledge the difficulties in measuring soil carbon. However we suggest further research & a National Soil Carbon Strategy rather than the exclusion out of the report due to lack of data. The following websites from Australia illustrate possible options for Wales & the UK.
http://nationalsoilcarbonstrategy.blogspot.com/ http://carboncoalitionoz.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
Every day I see permanent pasture based dairy farmers making significant progress toward what they refer to as "healthy soils"...this is a rapid build up of Organic Matter in the Top Soil & a dramatic increase in "Soil life & activity".

As Pasture Dry Matter Production increases so does the soil activity increase............this needs to be measured & monitored so that farmers can off set their carbon emissions. Average Discussion Group pasture production is approx 10 T DM/ha consumed (by grazing dairy cows) compared to an estimated UK average of less than 5 T DM/ha. The organic farms I see average between 7-8 T DM/ha. What I dont think is being acknowledged is the increase in top soil depth.
I accept the need for more research.

11. It is very important that the Welsh Assembly appreciate firstly that farmers want to be environmentally seen as "being green". The farming families want to leave the farm & the land to the next generation in a better condition than they themselves inherited the land.
But it is very important that Government understand that :-
"It is very hard to be green when your business is in the red"
Environmental programs & initiatives will be implemented by profitable dairy farm businesses as soon as possible.

Already there is a strenuous effort being made by pasture based low input farms to reduce fuel use, electricity thru technologies such as "Varivac...Variable speed vacumn pump & milk pump control systems." All efforts are being made to fully investigate on farm energy generation such as wind power by the progressive Discussion Group members.

12. Lastly I'm hoping that this is the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between pasture based dairy farmers, research,the authors of this report & the Welsh Assembly.

What do you think?

Pass Me the Extra Protein Daisy

Pass Me the Extra Protein Daisy!

Are Dairy cows likely to be short of dietary Protein during March?

Normally this would seem a strange question to be asking grass based dairy farmers, be they Autumn or Spring Block Calvers.

In the UK grass based dairy farmers find themselves in a difficult position right now as the cold & wet conditions are severely restricting the ability to graze pastures. Many herds which would normally be outside grazing reasonable pasture by now still have the cows indoors. Many spring calving herds might be heavily feeding for another month. This is very unusual.

The very wet conditions are frustrating to put it mildly. Soil temperatures remain much colder than they normally are in early March. So there is no pasture growth anywhere in the UK.

Even if you are able to graze much of the available pasture has winter kill damage.

Fortunately most dairy farms have adequate grass & maize silage reserves. However the quality of both are not fantastic. Both the energy (ME) & the protein (Crude Protein %) are not great after a wet cool summer in 2009. Protein levels in many grass silage samples are 12-13%.

So is the silage good enough for milking cows?

To answer that question we need to clarify how much dietary protein needs to be in the diet of a milking cow. In most text books it says minimum of 17% crude Protein in early lactation dropping to 15% in late lactation. However work at Travarez Research Centre in Brittany has stated dietary protein requirements more clearly.

Firstly dietary protein is not the only source of protein for the cow. Microbial Protein (microbes flushed from the rumen into the lower intestines, sometimes referred to as bypass protein) & Non Protein Nitrogen may amount to 3% of protein requirements for the milking cow. This Microbial Protein may not all be available if feed energy is limiting.

Secondly the farmer needs to decide what are their business objectives. Do they want to target feeding levels to either a) Fully express genetic potential or b) to operate a low input system.

If you want to "fully express the genetic potential" then dietary protein in early lactation should be 18% crude Protein.

If however you have a "low input system" then dietary protein need only be 14% in early lactation.

This means ofcourse that total Protein is 20-21% in the high input system & 17% in the low input system. There may also be some "cow" protein available post calving in much the same way that the cow converts some body condition to available energy & milk production.

The bad news is that feed protein is currently quite expensive & likely to remain so until perhaps May. This is due to the crushing plants at the Bio fuel sites not being in full production. So there is a short term shortage of Rapeseed Meal & Wheat Distillers.

On current costs of Soyabean Meal £230-240/T, Rapeseed Meal £190/T & Wheat Distillers at £180-£190/T there isn't much in it. Probably you would stick to Soya.

The moist feed Protein options are too expensive when compared on a Dry Matter basis.

Some dairy farmers like Lyndon Edwards are successfully growing lucerne. UK grown peas & beans would also be protein options.

Dairy cows in early lactation that are not fed enough protein tend to produce less milk & retain body Condition Score, whereas cows fed high levels of protein produce more milk but at the expense of Condition Score & more than likely fertility....as these cows often struggle to get back in calf.

Underfed cows also produce less milk in early lactation & carry more condition thru out the lactation. Many of these cows dont get back in calf either.

Many farms will see a response to extra dietary protein as silages are not up to scratch.

What's really needed of course is for my mate the "Reverend Tim" from the Hybrids group in Devon to get his pray book out again & order us all some much needed sunshine & warmth............

.....C'Mon Tim do your thing Mate!

So should you be looking for extra dietary Protein? Maybe!

You need to get out your calculators & check.

Please add your comments.

Winter Kill on Dairy Pastures has been Costly

Have you turned cows out onto pasture yet or are you looking out on either snow covered or sodden soils.
Not only are some soils still very wet but the soil temperatures across the UK, Northern Ireland & Brittany in France are all below average for this time of year. Soil temps are between 2 & 4 degrees C when they are often 5-6 degrees C by now.
Whatever your situation you need to do a farm walk & not only measure the grass but assess how the pastures look. The winter kill caused by frost & snow damage has been substantial on many UK dairy farms this winter. Some dismiss winter kill as an inevitable consequence of winter frosts & wind.

However as everyone starts to measure the pasture covers now....we are starting to get some idea of the magnitude of the losses. Many farms are reporting average pasture covers this spring that are 3-400kgs DM/ha less than the closing covers last autumn. A bale of silage is approx 200 kgs DM. So some farms have lost the equivalent of two bales of silage per hectare. This is approx £20-50 per hectare....so a farm loss of feed amounting to say £3000-7500. No small loss! .

Most of the damage was caused by the January snow & the cold spell where frosts were common in most areas of the UK. Older pastures (low fertility species) & those not recently fertilized with nitrogen seem to be more susceptible.

Many pastures on organic farms seem relatively unscathed compared to their conventional neighbours (maybe the soil N is high due to summer clover N).

Winter kill is a mix of physical damage mainly to older leaves & some fungal or mould development which seems to kill off the leaves. The roots & crowns seem to recover. Pastures less affected are just showing the "purpling colour" of frost damage.

So how bad is the damage? Pasture plate meter readings at the end of autumn 2009 on many farms were very high. Instead of the normal 2000-2100 kgs DM per hectare average farm cover, some farms had say 2500 average with individual paddocks well above 2800kgs. These are the pastures that appear most affected by winter kill. Many of the farms that are being monitored regularly were the ones with extraordinary covers in November. Why? Do we have short memories about winter kill of pastures? Was the money invested in monitoring during the year completely lost when you assess the pasture DM losses due to winter kill? Or did these farms take their eyes off the ball not fully realising the potential for losses?

What do you need to do now? I think the worse affected fields need to be grazed asap with either stale cows or dry cows.

It's not great feed but it is better to be grazed early. A grazing minimises the plant disease risks & then allows N fertilizer or muck to be applied depending on your NVZ status. The worst affected pastures may need reseeding but let's hold off on that decision until you view the recovery after grazing.

What are the lessons?

Graze all fields at least once after the first week of October.

Aim to close grazing with an average cover of between 2-2100 with the longest pastures not exceeding 2600 kgs DM/ha.

Don't use grazing recipes taken from a different country with a different winter climate. i.e. a third of the farm must be grazed by a certain date etc. etc.

Use N as late as you are allowed (NVZs) to get good fresh growth in late autumn & to take advantage of any "anti Freeze" affects of N fertilizer.

It's important to get good residuals i.e.1500 on that last grazing....often this is difficult if it turns wet.

I guess this experience this year does also questions the need for a pasture wedge after the last grazing? It's not common practice on some of the best farms in Brittany!

What do you think?

Lastly!

Don't try to use a plate meter to plan & arrange grazing management until say mid March. The plate readings are usually very unreliable!

Instead use the 'Spring Rotation Planner' a highly effective but very simple excel spreadsheet. If you don't have a copy email me.

Dairy Calf Rearing is Possibly the Most Important Task on a Dairyfarm

Calf rearing is possibly the single most important job to get right on a grass based dairy farm. The reason I say that is that young stock or heifer rearing is potentially the real wealth creator on a dairy farm.

Assuming that there is a tight block calving (9-12 weeks) & that empty rates are controlled below 10%.....surplus heifer calves can either be used to grow the business, improve the herd quality or be sold for cash. A successful heifer rearing unit on a grass based dairy farm can grow wealth in a very similar way to compound interest.

It is effectively Dairy Compound Interest. (DCI....a new piece of jargon!). The second reason I think calf rearing is so important is that there is very good evidence that the weaning weight has a huge influence on heifer weights at mating & at first calving.The Heifer Liveweight Targets need to be set at 90% of mature cow liveweight at first calving. Calves that struggle during the milk feeding stage prior to weaning seem to struggle up to 15 months & often calve down under weight.These heifers then under produce in the first lactation as they are still growing....the risk of not getting back in calf is substantial.

Heifer calves must be weaned on weight NOT age. If you dont have scales then use a weigh band which are reasonably accurate up to 4-5 months of age.

Jersey calves should be weaned at 70-80kgs, XBred at 85-90kgs & Friesians at 95-100kgs.

New born calves must get good quality colostrum within the first 12 hours of birth. There is a very good argument for block calving herds to individually feed new borns that colostrum to make sure they get it. What ever milk feeding system you use it needs to focus on ensuring the calf gets a consistent intake of high quality milk solids(energy).If you are feeding fresh milk one option is to fortify the liquid with milk powder.

The second priority is to feed good quality roughage (straw or hay) to encourage the rumen to develop before weaning. The calves will nibble away at straw virtually from day one just as they will eat a dry calf feed in addition to the liquid milk. This is essential to negate any set back at weaning.

Ofcourse good quality housing, clean bedding,access to fresh water, no draughts but good ventilation are all part of successful calf rearing. The real issue is not at the start of calving as everything is clean & only recently set up...the real problems often occur during the second half of calving when everyone is tired & the routines are not strictly kept to every day.

It's really important that everyone in the team all do every task the same way as the regular calf rearer. It's the strict quality control over mixes, quantities & routines that makes such a huge difference. For example does the team all mix electrolyte in exactly the same way?

What measures have you taken to ensure this always happens (see photo).

Some useful websites are http://www.nzgrazing.co.nz/articles/growth-targets/benchmarking/

&

http://land.vic.gov.au/DPI/nreninf.nsf/childdocs/-89E7A8DAFEA417624A2568B30004C26A-BBB90E3F477D0B74CA256BC700811C92-95F19DA354E9D3664A256DEA00277FD6-F6CD25F14A8283D5CA256BCF000BBFE3?open .

On these websites the target weights are clearly set out for the different breeds.

It concerns me that so few farmers are regularly weighing heifers. How do you know if your investment in young stock is on target? I think every discussion group should invest in a set of modern scales for weighing cattle. It's ideally suited to group purchase as each farm may only use them say 12 times a year. Modern cattle scales are highly portable.

http://www.tru-test.com/

Without weighing you have NO idea!.

Soyabean Crops in Argentina...Very Interesting

Argentina is a beautiful & fascinating country. Agriculturally it is an emerging low cost global giant that will continue to affect the UK & Europe. Argentina has long been respected as a low cost beef producer with most beef being pasture grazed. The Malbec red wine from Mendoza is of the highest quality. You might not be totally surprised if I tell you that Malbec goes very well with Argentinean beef. What an amazing combination!

However in recent years it is the soyabean production from both Argentina & Brasil that has made the rest of the agricultural world sit up & take note. USA has the largest number of hectares in soyabean crops. Brasil is No.2 & Argentina number three in world production. The major importers are China & Europe. So what happens in Argentina, Brasil & China has a direct impact on the price UK farmers pay for feed protein.

Year on year increases in soyabean crop areas & yields in Argentina have been a staggering 27% pa. Soya in Argentina has been expanding at the expense of other arable crops & beef grazing land. In 2008 the Argentina president slapped a substantial export tax onto soyabean farmers. This is based on the land value. Argentine farmers were insensed & staged massive strikes by blocking the transport system for over 30 days.

In 2008-9 Argentina suffered a very serious drought that severely affected the output of soya & all other arable crops.

This year however has been a good one & production is forecast to be up 66% on last year & a record 53million tonnes most of which is exported.....mainly to Europe. Brasil too is having a very good year with an expected 65million tonnes. Harvest starts in April thru to June.

On Bella Vista Estancia, established in 1860 (Estancia is the Argentine word for Ranch or farm) south of Buenos Aires, I was shown the soya crop by Agricultural Consultant Diego Fevre. He explained that the soya yield is very much influenced by the number of nodules on each plant stem. Eight nodules is good, 10 is exceptional. If the weather is kind this season could be exceptional for the soya growers. Virtually all of the soya grown in Argentina is GM (RR.....Round up Resistant). Farmers lease a high proportion of their land, own very little machinery & get contractors to do most of the work. Minimum till is accepted practice on most Estancia.

So what are the market prospects for soya? Production in the USA, Brasil & Argentina is at record levels. Only extreme heat & lack of rain can dent the Argentinean output. Demand from China remains high.

However the general consensus view is that soya prices will fall due to the record production in South America. It seems likely that with wheat stocks world wide at very high levels the same might be expected of wheat prices. Much will depend on currency changes.

Argentina, Chile, Uraguay & Brasil are becoming very important agricultural countries. Opportunities for dairying look really interesting too. How about a trip to South America guys & girls?....the Malbec wines of Mendoza are worth sampling I can tell you from first hand experience. I am thinking this coming autumn.....any starters?

Easy Simple Winter Feeding for Dairy Cows

It never ceases to amaze me how some farmers make every day tasks really simple while others flog themselves to the point of exhaustion trying to make expensive complicated systems work. It seems a fact of life that complicated systems are always expensive.

The simple systems always seem to work better.

It just takes us all a while to discover that truism.

Winter feeding of housed milking dairy cows is a classic example.

Sadly most dairy farmers spend hours every day feeding their cows (& at huge cost). This makes winter one hell of a drag. It also often means that feeding becomes a specialised task. Once this happens individuals are trapped in a vicious cycle of having to do it as no one else knows how or could be trusted to do it right???

In amongst the "Pasture to Profit" dairy farm Discussion Groups in the UK there are smart people with smart simple ideas & simple ways of doing things. Its a matter of searching out these simple ideas & spreading them thru the groups so we move everyone onto a new more efficient plane. Few of these ideas are truely new but they have been adapted & modified on each farm.

Chris & Richard from the Wyegraze Group in Herefordshire have a simple winter feeding system that uses a silage block cutter & self feed manual barriers that the cows move themselves. The 400+ autumn calvers are ONLY fed grass silage once every ten days (varies). The Silage block cutter (see photo) ensures that the blocks in the barriers maintain their feed quality & the silage clamp face is near perfect(not letting any air into the silage). The capital costs are minimal as the Irish made barriers are a once only cost & relatively cheap. It's a simple diet ideal for a low input autumn calving system.

Sussex is the home of self feed silage. The 'vertical paddock' is low cost & effective with either grass or maize silage. Wastage is absolutely minimal. Calculations for issues like the required eating space for each milking cow have been carefully worked out by farmer experience.....good old 'suck & see' methods.

The 'Spratt silage feeding system for dry cows is a variation on the silage blocks(or bales). A simple system for feeding dry cows on concrete yards at virtually no capital expense & very little labour as dry cows need only be fed once a week(depending on the number of blocks/bales fed & the herd size). The feeding rate can be adjusted by how quickly the wire is moved.....this also controls wastage.

KEEP IT SIMPLE