Farmer Focus: Fortunate to have silage carryover this year

A drought is always a worrying time for livestock farmers. Luckily, last season we had good growing conditions and carried over 1,500t of silage, which has been helpful when supplementing over the summer.

With the uncertainty of future weather patterns, this is probably the best insurance mechanism, as it avoids paying high prices when supply is low and demand is high.

As the milk price has been high and we’ve had relatively cheap feed in stock (compared with what it’s worth now), it’s paid to still maximise milk sales and not dry off cows early or cull cows too soon.

See also: Tips on managing mastitis control programmes

About the author

Jonathan Hughes

Livestock Farmer Focus writer

Jonathan Hughes and family run a 650-head organic autumn block-calving dairy herd with followers on 435ha (1,075 acres) in Leicestershire, selling milk to Arla. Livestock are intensively grazed throughout the growing season, with all forage crops grown in-house.

Read more articles by Jonathan Hughes

We have bought some additional wholecrop silage from an organic neighbour, which will serve as a buffer (our own spring wholecrops were poor, and second-cut silage was non-existent).

Calving is well under way, with 200 cows calved. The extremely dry late August conditions were favourable for calving outside, although the heifers started calving a week before the cows, in the heatwave. 

Early September has welcomed an inch of rain. Things are certainly greening up and the clover has started to grow.

Far-off dry cows are strip-grazed off the grass platform on standing hay, which was left after first cut. We’re achieving intakes of 10kg dry matter a head a day with the aim of maintaining body condition score. 

Three weeks pre-calving, the dry cows are brought back closer to home to calve on standing hay on the platform. 

After the drought, standing hay covers are poor, so we are supplementing the close-to drys with 1.5kg a head a day of rapemeal and wholecrop silage along the barrier when running the springing group through the parlour to teat-spray.

Colostrum quality of fresh heifers was slightly poorer than expected at the start of calving, as we were about a week delayed bringing them on to the pre-calving feed plan. Luckily, we had a freezer full of good colostrum from last year. 

Following last year’s rotavirus outbreak among the calves, we are feeding 3.5-4.5 litres of first colostrum, depending on calf size, to ensure immunity levels are hit. 

To monitor this, our vet has taken some blood samples testing serum protein concentration. The target of 5.5g/decilitre was exceeded, so fingers crossed for healthier calves this year.