John Glover
John Glover
John Glover
John Glover
John Glover milks 65 Holstein
Friesian cows and rears
replacements on a 40ha
(100-acre) county council
holding near Lutterworth,
Leics, having moved from
another 20ha (51-acre) unit
FOR the first time we look like being substantially over quota. In previous years we would have considered buying a small amount of milk quota to help us out. But with clean quota trading at 33-34p/litre, and milk price about half of that, it does not make sense, especially when used quota can be bought for at least 20p.
Other options are to cull cows and dry them off early. While I write this, I am waiting for a lorry to collect some dry cows. We were unfortunate to lose three cows during calving. The first contracted a severe case of mastitis the day after being dried off, the other two had calving difficulties.
Nevertheless, if these had been milking since January, as predicted, they would have produced another 6500 litres or 1% of quota. We have also dried off most June calvers, although some of these were still milking at over 25 litres a day.
Another factor to consider is that next years quota will have seasonal price reductions in April, May and June.
As we feed forage to cows all year and use limited grazing, spring grass does not offer us the chance for so-called cheap milk, meaning our costs do not change much month to month.
It would make sense to sell less milk in these low-priced months and more later in the year, when prices are higher and, therefore, increase our overall milk price. So should we dry June and July calvers off early to lower production in these months?
Whatever the answer, we are now back in the silly season, with dairy companies watching each other cut their prices; ours have announced a 1.2p fall in April.
Another way to use over-quota milk is to feed it to calves. We had about 30 February and March born Saler calves. We sold some to see what they were worth – bull calves struggled to reach £30 and heifers averaged £1.
After that we decided to rear and feed them on surplus milk. We will look at the market again in April and decide whether to keep them or sell them as reared calves. But as the milk would probably have been thrown away, we should be in pocket regardless. *
Theres some tricky questions for John Glover to answer, such as whether to dry June and July calvers off early to cut milk production in these months?