Farmer Focus: Milk yields up but hot spells hit fertility
Colin Murdoch © Jeff Holmes With a week of good weather finally forecast, we’ve knocked down 12ha (30 acres) of mature grass to bale as hay for dry cows.
We seem to spend all summer trying to make the best forage we can for the milking herd, but in a bid to avoid problems with cows being too fit at calving, we’ve left this block to try and get some lower-energy fodder.
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As usual, we’ve had showery conditions for the past few weeks, but we managed to get second cut done in super sunshine.
The only downside was missing the Highland Show because I was cutting. Three out of four clamps are now full, with just the wholecrop to come, which is a nice position to be in July.
Harvest of winter barley is only a couple weeks away, so we’re busy cleaning sheds out that normally house heifers so we can tip grain off the combine.
For ease, the grain will be crimped and treated with propcorn (propionic acid). This block will then be reseeded to grass.
When wheat harvest starts, we will again caustic-treat the grain, as the cows have milked extremely well with it in the ration.
As much as it is hard to compare year-on-year, our herd average is just over 300 litres a cow up, to tip us over 7,200 litres with an average of 6.2% butterfat and 4.2% protein.
We’re pushing as much grass into the cows as we can and trying to keep on top of aftermaths.
That’s the good news. The bad news is our fertility has taken a major dip at the last two scannings.
I’m hoping the couple of really hot spells we’ve had are the culprit. At least it’s good to get the new heat detection and monitoring ear tags into the cows to ensure we’re not missing anything, as they look in good fettle.
With everything being based in the “cloud”, we’ve had to upgrade the computer in the office. This, of course, has grown arms and legs and led to new lights, flooring and a lick of paint to create a nicer “working environment”. (I rolled my eyes too!)
We’re hoping for some family time now, as Kathryn returns to work full time after the school holidays as a principal teacher, and Rory joins Jack at primary to start his school journey.