Farmer Focus: Slow grass growth and attempted ‘cow proofing’
As I prepared for my flight back to the UK, the running joke amongst my Kiwi colleagues was around just how many new hobbies I would have time for “only” milking 400 cows, writes George Brown.
But it turns out things have been pretty busy, with plenty of development work underway on the farm, and six weeks spent obsessing about tail paint as we try to get our cows in calf.
See also: Read more from our Livestock Farmer Focus writers
While some things are certainly very different to what I have previously been used to, it is reassuring to know there are plenty of similarities farming on opposite sides of the world. It’s still just cows and grass, only the cows are bigger and the paddocks are smaller, and a lot hillier.
Grass growth has been excellent for the past couple of months, although growth rates are now slowing as we begin to dry up. Walking the farm with the plate meter three times every fortnight is helping ensure I am keeping on top of pasture quality.
We have mown almost half of the farm in front of the milking herd over the past month to increase intakes while growth was peaking, and have, hopefully, set up grass quality mowing forwards.
While it has led to several sideways looks from passers by, questioning why we haven’t retrieved the cows from the silage paddock, it has helped keep seed heads under control and hit residuals when the cows have been going into some fairly high pre-grazing covers.
We are on course to have mated all eligible spring calving cows by the end of week six. It has also been a relief to see that a couple of late calvers are now showing signs of oestrus, and all being well we might manage to get them calving earlier in the block next year.
We are currently working on developing a road crossing to improve access to some rented land. The new improvised cattle grid made of electric tape and plastic pipe is almost cow proof.
But, when half the herd jumps the tapes at 5am and sets off towards the village, you suddenly realise “almost cow proof” isn’t really good enough. Suggestions for improvements would be gratefully received.
George Brown manages the 330-cow dairy herd at Cairnhead Farm on behalf of Robert Craig. He was the first Farmers Apprentice winner in 2012.