Good grazing management can cut costs

Good grazing management can help reduce costs – that’s the message farmers received at a recent on farm discussion in County Tyrone.

At the event, host farmer Henry Stewart explained how he was targeting an improvement in milk from forage by improved management of grazed grass and taking three cuts of high-quality silage.

Swards are walked once a week to decide whether extra land area is needed in the grazing rotation or surplus grass has to be taken out of the rotation and cut for big-bale silage.

Cows are fed automatically through the milking parlour with up to 19 litres being taken from grazed grass in the month of June. Cows are fed 0.45kg of concentrates for every litre above this level of milk production, explained Mr Stewart.

To get more milk from forage during the winter, the plan is to make three cuts of high-quality silage which will help to reduce the level of concentrates needed. CAFRE Benchmarking figures also help to monitor the level of milk from forage and the resulting impact on production costs.

• Any farmer wishing to know more about CAFRE Dairy Benchmarking should contact CAFRE on 028 9442 6666.