Farmer Focus: Forage stocks get 37t/ha maize boost

Well, the rain has finally come, but maybe too late for some. Our grass has really taken off in the past 10 days and should be ready to cut before the end of September.

My biggest fear is that it doesn’t stop raining and we can’t get on the ground to get it off. We’ve got 89ha (220 acres) to mow, and I’m hoping it will yield close to 1,000t, which will then put our forage stocks in a good place.

See also: Are transition cows getting enough metabolisable protein?

About the author

David Luxton

David Luxton farms with his partner Sarah Haworth on her family’s 101ha all-grass farm on the north Devon/Cornwall border. They run a 200-cow housed Holstein Friesian herd averaging close to 11,000 litres, milking through three robots on a guided system. A further 28ha are rented for growing grass and maize

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Our maize came off on 11 September, the earliest we have ever harvested it. It averaged 37t/ha at 34% dry matter, which I was very pleased with for the year. So that’s another 800t of forage in stock.

In spring, I wrote about the maize being 17 miles away, and it was a fair operation to get it back: we had 12 trailers on. I was very worried about what could go wrong on the day with that many vehicles on the road.

However, I’m pleased to report that it went without incident. Still to chop is a standing crop of 4.5ha (11 acres), which I’ve bought locally (we won’t talk about how much I paid for it).

I’ve sourced more because my consultant wants me to feed more to the cows and start putting it into the dry cow ration. He thinks we can improve the transition period and help them get to a bigger peak.

Next year, we’ll need to grow 40ha (100 acres) – if you’re local to me and have spare ground, feel free to get in touch.

The cows have dropped yield a bit since we’ve finished feeding the first cut. They have gone onto third cut, which hasn’t analysed very well.

Second cut is buried below it; hopefully once we eat our way back to it, we will see some lift in yield. With milk prices improving, I want to be able to capitalise on that.

With the dry summer, we have used the opportunity to increase the capacity of our slurry lagoon. We always struggle to get through a wet winter, which isn’t unusual at Newlands.

We have tripled the capacity and should now get through the winter more easily, and be able to make more use of slurry to grow grass. We also been able to finish tidying up around the new unit and regained some field. Every blade of grass counts.