Archive Article: 2001/03/09
Richard Hinchion
Richard Hinchion milks 60
dairy cows and rears 40
replacements on 34ha (83
acres) at Crookstown, west
of Cork city, in southern
Ireland. With a fixed quota
of just over 300,000 litres,
the emphasis is on low-cost
production. Cows yield
6000 litres from 650kg of
concentrate
THE calving season is in full swing with 30 cows calved as we approach Feb 23. It looks as though our target of 50 cows calved by Feb 28 is unrealistic because cows are seven to 14 days late.
So far we have 46% heifers born from Friesian AI. We have only lost one calf, which was still-born, but this was compensated for by the arrival of twin heifers the next day.
We start calved cows on 4kg of an 18% protein dairy ration costing £133/t and gradually increase this to 7.5kg while cows are still indoors.
Present indications are that Dairygold co-op is under quota by 4.54m litres, so it is full steam ahead to produce as much milk as possible. However, by Mar 20, depending on weather and grass growth, things may have changed.
Recent exceptionally dry weather allowed us to complete fertiliser spreading using 125kg/ha (50kg/acre) of prilled urea. I had hoped for cows to be out by mid-February. But on completing a walking tour of all paddocks with my daughter Sarah, I was disappointed to find an overall grass cover of only 480kg DM/ha. We have decided to wait for a week or so. Lets hope grass growth will have improved by then.
Did you know that if you have to carry milk in buckets to 50 calves at a rate of 318 litres/calf between birth and weaning, you will have carried 16t of milk by the time they are weaned? This year we reckoned we had built enough muscles over the years. Instead, we decided to pump milk from the parlour pit fresh from cow to calf house. It is working a treat.
However, it looks as though we will be lucky to get £40-£55 for three-week-old Holstein bull calves. The beef industry is still in turmoil over BSE in Europe and now confirmation of foot-and-mouth in England, which is worrying. It is now almost impossible to move cull cows into the Purchase for Destruction Scheme.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Dairygold co-op announced 0.17p/litre bonuses on 2000 milk supply. This will amount to £536, so we look forward to the postman arriving with our brown envelope. *
Dry, fine weather has allowed Richard Hinchion to apply fertiliser recently, but grass is not growing as quickly as he would like.