On Target for Autumn Grass Management?

Summer has been a NON event.

Lots of lily white legs at Discussion Groups .........................not a pretty sight!

September has brought cold wet miserable conditions especially in northern UK. Despite the lack of sunshine pasture growth over the last few months has been amazing. No summer rest for pasture may mean we don't get any autumn peak in pasture growth rates. Everyone needs to be somewhat cautious in what they expect grass growth to do over September.

The lack of sunshine has created a few problems with pasture & cow management....low magnesium levels, low fibre content & lower than normal energy (ME) levels. Not everyone has the milk or milksolids they have been hoping for lately. However the research is clear there are few benefits of trying to add fibre to a grazing cow's diet....all you do if anything is lower DM intake.

The wet summer may also increase the risk of Liver Fluke.....ask your Vet.

Bloat has been a real issue where clover content has been high. A number of products are very useful for control bloat (see website for useful info)...many farmers are mowing in front of the cows & trying to get longer grazing rotations to get some maturity into the feed.

http://www.fil.co.nz/newsite/Online/index.html

Pasture covers all summer have been very high especially autumn calvers who simply have not had the stocking rate to keep on top of fast growing pasture. Most pasture covers are still really high....on the surface this looks good as we target 2600-2700 for the first week of October. However with very wet conditions in the north its really hard to get good utilization.

I would be lengthening the grazing rotation now to build covers for October.....cooler nights, colder soil temperatures & question marks over available soil nitrogen levels. There is currently little or no difference between organic & N fed pastures in terms of growth or cover.

Farm Pasture Covers & Current measured pasture growth (1st week of Sept) :-

Dumfries....2550kgs DM/ha Average cover......50kgsDM/ha/day growth

Cumbria.....2660..............60

Cumbria.....2450..............52

North Wales..2660...........70

Staffordshire 2250...........50

Derbyshire 2552..............56

Somerset....2450..............55

Dorset.........2250..............60

Devon.........2650..............67

Gloucester..2520..............60

Joburg SAfrica....very dry, Durban....green (roving reporter Steve Brandon)

Rotorua NZ (end of 1st rotation)....2413........49kgsDM/ha/day growth (via Twitter NZCows)

Grass based Dairy Farms have a Low Carbon Footprint

What is the Carbon Footprint for Milk on your farm? Calculating your onfarm Carbon Footprint for Milk is about to become really important. In December there is a critical International meeting to be held in Copenhagen about how the world is to reduce carbon emissions. Each country (including EU 27) will make key decisions as to how (read at what cost) the carbon emissions are to be reduced. There wont be too much debate about.....do we really need to do this? http://www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk/en/

Guess what? Agriculture will be targetted as a key industry where reductions must happen. The UK government is looking for a 20% reduction in Agricultural emissions by 2020. This may require a reduction in cow numbers, reduced fertilizer N use, reduced consumption of electricity, oil & fuel, and improvements to herd fertility. Methane emissions from cows & manure waste management are of concern given methane's "Global Warming Potential". Herd fertility is seen as a means of reducing a farm's Carbon Footprint.

Dairy farmers thru out the world (not just the UK) will be held responsible for their carbon emissions......either by reducing carbon emissions or having to buy carbon credits. Carbon credits will be traded probably with a relatively low initial value say 15 Euros but after 2015 the cost of these will almost certainly increase rapidly (perhaps to 60 Euros). This will have a major effect on farm costs.

As electricity generation is a major UK source of current carbon emissions...........you can be very sure that electricity costs will rise & that dairy farmers need to reduce consumption both to control costs & to reduce the Carbon Footprint of their milk production. Every dairy farmer needs to look at ways of reducing electricity such as Heat Recovery Units or Varivac Systems

http://www.corkillsystems.co.nz/ Steve will be at the Dairy Event & available to visit Discussion Groups (talk to Tom)

There are some excellent websites on how to reduce electricity usage http://www.caenz.com/sustain/Downloads/Farmers_Report.pdf

Pasture based dairy farms have a lower Carbon Footprint for MILK. Every Discussion Group now needs to calculate the Carbon Footprint before December. Talk to Tom about this as I have set up spreadsheets for Discussion Groups to use.

On a closely related issue..........Food Security is now a Government topic.....surprise surprise!! There is very good reason for the UK government to be concerned having for decades all but destroyed UK agriculture. It's an outrageous situation in the current 'global warming & climatic uncertain future' that highly productive UK soils are either poorly utilized or even worse.....have ceased to produce food. How Government intends to change this will be very interesting indeed.

There is an excellent BBC program that is very good & well worth watching..."Future of Food" http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m9xk9/Future_of_Food_Episode_1/

Grass based dairy farmers need to Stand up, Speak up....Grass based dairyfarms already have a low Carbon Footprint & they are less reliant on reducing world stocks of oil!

Keep Mowing Pasture In Front of the Cows...It's that kind of year

Mowing pasture in front of the cows is an excellent daily tool to keep the pasture in top quality. In most years once is enough. This year however most farms in the UK are battling surplus grass & struggling to maintain quality. The quality of pasture being grazed is a direct result of the residual left last grazing. The tighter the residual (1500kgsDM/ha) the better the subsequent quality for milking cows.

The residual must be hard grazed everytime. If that's not possible mowing in front is a good option. It leaves the pasture nice & short, reduces the bloat risk & cows adapt quickly. However it costs money to run the tractor.....so I'm hestitant to recommend a second mowing. Almost every farm I've seen this week needs to regain control so the best option after taking quick cuts of bale silage is to mow again. What's your Pasture Wedge Graph telling you?

In 1975 I invented the term "Pasture Wedge". I was trying to describe the quantity of pasture feed a dairy farm had available at any one time. I thought we needed a simple picture....a little like a silage clamp....a visual picture. I was working with several dairy farm Discussion Groups near Matamata NZ. Little did I nor the late Des Clayton, (a scientist from NZ's Ruakura Research) who I was working with at the time, realise that this concept would be used all around the world by pasture based dairy farmers are they strive for better pasture utilization.

So often it's simple concepts that stick!

I take enormous personal pride that the 'pasture wedge concept' is now a world wide concept used by thinking dairy farmers everywhere. Imagine my joy on coming to the UK 8 years ago to hear progressive farmers talk about the "Magic Spring Day" another 1975 Matamata term that has travelled the world.

The development of the Pasture Wedge Graph a simple excel spreadsheet could almost be described as a giant leap forward for dairy farmers. Now farmers can get control & keep control of their lowest cost input....pasture.

I see that the pasture wedge graph has made it to the USA too.....isnt that fantastic!. http://plantsci.missouri.edu/grazingwedge/ Talking USA here's a grazing website thats worth visiting too. http://www.prograsstinators.com/ A great example of a progressive pasture based dairyfarm Discussion Group.

Question:- Who produces the Champion Cheddar in the UK? Do you know?

Answer:- MilkLink Lockerbie Creamery! Though there are many different classes .... Best Farmhouse Traditional Award went to Quickes Cheese from Devon.

Isnt it great to see a pasture based cheese win yet again. The Best Extra Mature Cheddar was won by my old friends Murray Goulburn Cooperative from Victoria Australia.....yet another grass fed produced cheese.....top of the (world) class!

Last week I ploughed thru the mud at the Nantwich Show to see the famous cheese tent. What a sight, hundreds of cheeses competing for prizes & cups. If I was critical there was lots of cheddar & cheddar look a likes but not enough variety. Where were the amazing range of cheeses now being produced locally. I wanted to see & taste more of the 800 boutique cheeses now produced in the UK. Nantwich is a world recognized cheese show.

I get grumpy when I'm offered a cheese board that is made up of imported cheeses....we all need to complain loudly about where are the local cheeses?

Pasture based or grass fed dairy products often taste better, look better & are better for you. Pasture fed dairy cows produce milk which is higher in Omega 3s. Clover based pastures are rich in nutrients & minerals.

So how proud was I to see Mary Quicke & her farm/cheese team (members of the Hybrids Discussion Group) win Gold Awards. http://www.quickes.co.uk/

How proud was I to meet up with Catherine Mead cheesemaker of Cornish Yarg who along with husband Ben Mead are also pasture based dairy farmers.http://www.lynherdairies.co.uk/

But how sad is it that these people are not recognised Champions within our dairy industry. How sad is it that virtually no one knows who produces the very Best Cheddar in England.

How few farmers know that "Tickler"http://ticklercheese.co.uk/ is a market leader for Milk Link? We are quick to blame others for low milk prices to farmers but if we dont champion our own Champions......who is really to blame its our world class product?

Earn More Work Less a Priority

Everytime I visit Brittany France it is obvious that French Dairy Farm families set a high business priority on "Earn More Work Less ". The farms we visited were very profitable yet they as families strove for a better 'life balance & quality time' with younger family members. Time with children was very important & often stated as a Business priority within minutes of being on the host farm. I was emotionally affected & it has left a lasting impression....something to think about!!

I'm not sure family has the same priority within British dairy farming families. Given that UK dairy farms are often family units this seems odd. As British farms have become bigger it seems people work harder & longer & time with family gets lost in the long hours. Not completely universal by any means but more the norm.

I think its mainly men who miss out. The greater family responsibilities fall on the women perhaps unfairly. The days when children are small pass so quickly.....don't miss out on these precious years.

Once a day milking is one option for reducing the work hours but maintaining or even increasing income earned. This takes careful management & time to achieve but is possible. We saw OAD milking both on farm & at the farmer driven research at Travarez.

France is not the only place this year where I have experienced a strong sense of family & community. Travelling through rural Australia we got a vivid impression of the priority given to family time & doing things together as a family. This appeared to translate to a strong community spirit where the small rural populace took responsiblity for their own community & it's wellbeing. The tougher the situation the more obvious was the spirit of working together & looking after each other. I think there's a link with family values & time with family.

Have we in the DairyfarmUK lost that strong sense of family? If we have then it's terribly serious.

Around the world dairy farm families are experiencing tough times. Farmers are protesting & standing shoulder to shoulder with their fellow farmers. Is that happening here? No. Do British farmers stand together????.......its not obvious!

As grass based dairy farmers we need to stick together, learn together & support each other.

United we stand Divided we fall.

Grass seed cocktail mixes are a complete nonsense

English dairy farmers continue to use a pasture seed mix that includes a cocktail of grasses & clovers. Why? This certainly isnt the common practice in NZ or Australia nor, I discovered, on leading farms in Brittany France. Most so called "cocktail grass mixes" contain a few named varieties & are then bulked up using various other non descript "others". Within a few months most will have been grazed out by the cows unable to compete. The remainder will probably cross breed. So whats the point?

Select one or two late heading ryegrasses that have UK trial data on performance & add say two vigorous white clovers (one upright medium to large leaf variety & one smaller more compact variety) If you are in a drier region you might add say "Matrix" a new NZ crossbred grass or a summer active Fescue (both late heading). Keep it simple.

One of the management headaches that these "pasture cocktail mixes" create is a pasture that has a huge spread of heading dates...........very common in the UK at the moment. This is a nightmare to manage & it lowers the feed value of the grazed pasture. Admittedly the dry summer in some areas has brought out ryegrass seed heads on very short stems but the breeding & genetic makeup of the different grasses is the core problem.

Keep it simple one or two late heading ryegrasses ONLY in your pasture seed mix.

Why Are Farmers being paid less When retail prices are higher in the UK?

I read in the Telegraph newspaper this weekend that the price in the retail shops (read Supermarkets)for milk & cheese has gone up 14% & 9% repectively in the last year in the United Kingdom. 4 pints of Semi-Skimmed Milk is now £1.53 compared to £1.34 12 months ago. Mature Cheddar cheese has gone up from £3.52/400g to £3.85/400g.
How can this be when the milk prices to UK dairy farmers has dropped nearly 15%???
The average farm gate price in EU has dropped 28% in the last year.WHY HAS THE FARM GATE PRICE DROPPED?
We can bemoan Supermarket power & lack of real government concern but its easy to blame someone else.Milk in the UK is treated like a commodity not only by the Supermarkets but farmers too. This is disgraceful.

Milk cartons in UK stores must be the most boring items on the shelves.No excitement.No real link with real dairy farmers.No colour. No imagination.Milk is not sexy in UK stores.

A recent visit to canada highlighted how far the British dairy industry has fallen behind in milk packaging.See photos from Canada where there was a huge range of exciting milks on sale(these photos were taken in Quebec city)Milk has been made sexy & exciting by the producers.

Dont underestimate people power in changing the consumers perception of milk.I suggest you visit http://www.ilovefarmers.org/links.html a really enterprising website set up by some university students in the USA.Not only have they a great website but they are fully exploring the use of Twitter Facebook & Myspace to target young teenage consumers. The new internet technologies of sites like Twitter are very powerful. We need to be using Twitter to communicate the benefits of grass fed milk to our consumers. If we dont you can be sure that those who are anti milk & dairy products will. In fact a search on Twitter using "milk" will quickly show you that there are organisations promoting milk & almost as many organisations who are anti milk & dairy products. This is the new age of people power.....you'd better get used to it. What are YOU going to do?

Milk can be exciting & well promoted just check out the "Got Milk" website from the Californian Milk Processor Board http://www.gotmilk.com/#/home/
I've just returned from France where dairy farmers are mounting protests about the very same issue...retail prices have increased whereas dairy farmers farm gate prices have fallen. Are we going to fight back in the UK? Are we going to get angry & protest? Or are we just going to get rolled over again?