Milk from forage

[MrA.G.]

Residual wouldn’t be lower than 1600, usually 1700

With the higher exit covers does grass quality decrease as the season goes on or do you just top to reset?

 

[Grassman247]

With the higher exit covers does grass quality decrease as the season goes on or do you just top to reset?

Top or mow to reset

 

[rusty]

Currently doing 4700 from forage on a 7800 yield. Autumn block calving and paddock grazing. Going from 3 cuts to 4 done at 5 week intervals has helped. Feed a winter TMR of grass and wholecrop with a home mix blend of approximately 2kg rolled wheat 1kg each of soya and rape and 0.5kg molasses. Sometimes feed 4-5kg brewers grains (as a concentrate substitute). Would expect around M+25 litres of this and top up in the parlour at 0.4kg litre with a 16% nut.
paddock graze from beginning of March. Usually go in at covers of around 3100. Never get residuals down to 1500 unless on the first round where we go into lower covers. Pre mow all paddocks once in late May/early June.
I think having individual parlour feeders must help a bit by targeting concentrates at those that most need it. Tend to work on M+22 off grazing early season , down to M+15 currently. Just housed the fresh calvers at night to ensure they get enough energy.
Our key to improving milk from forage has been renting more land and lowering our stocking rate , currently it’s 2.15/ha. 15 years ago it would have been 2.9/ha with yields of 8600 litres but milk from forage about 1800. Cow numbers have stayed about the same (320) but margins have improved significantly . Purchased feed cost per litre currently 5.05p but expect this to be around 6.5-7.0p by next March.

 

[FarmerWasty]

A decent cake rep/supplier should be able to do monthly costings like this.

I've got an excel spread sheet that suto does costings if interested.

 

[som farmer]

how much milk can the recent explosion of grass, reliably give, this autumn.
we have had 65ml, in 4 days, so a fair soaking, and grass is moving.

 

[In the pit]

how much milk can the recent explosion of grass, reliably give, this autumn.
we have had 65ml, in 4 days, so a fair soaking, and grass is moving.

Quality will be fantastic , dry matter could be another issue