Some Americans do graze their dairy cattle

[Clay52]

It's a bitch, not as bad as some farther south have it. The humidity adds to it as well. When it stays hot for prolonged periods and the night temps stay high is when it really hurts . Looking at 50%+ drop in production at that point.

50% drop, that is massive. We have had heat waves with day temps over 45C, overnight temps staying over 30C and then back over 40C by 8:30am and I haven't seen a 50% drop in production.

I agree it's the high night temps that really effect cows. We can get 40C plus through the day but if it gets down to 15-20 overnight the cows are usually fine. Those nights that are 20C plus the cows don't actually cool down before the next day and the heat builds up. I've seen them standing under trees at midnight because they were still hot and trying to cool off. Too stupid to realize that isn't going to help at night.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Yeah I wish it wasn't 50%, but at its worst that's what it is. That's only looking 6 years back. One thing to consider is that the hotter and drier it gets as the season progresses , the more stale the cows are and the lesser the feed quality is.

I would like to learn what you do to deal with heat. What is your humidity? What kind of facilities do you have? What are you feeding? Etc

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Only 19 C today and grey but heifers are still all stood under their favourite tree.

Its some sort of Maple type tree so could be a scene straight out of the US.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Only 19 C today and grey but heifers are still all stood under their favourite tree.View attachment 549948 View attachment 549950

Its some sort of Maple type tree so could be a scene straight out of the US.

Could have fooled me. Damn, those are some good looking heifers. Age? I like your jerseys, good pics.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

All born from mid Feb to mid march '16 so 16ish months. I'm really pleased with them but some of why they look good is down to luck rather than management. We had such an easy mild dry winter and they just kept growing and growing where in a wet winter growth can come to a bit of a standstill.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yeah I wish it wasn't 50%, but at its worst that's what it is. That's only looking 6 years back. One thing to consider is that the hotter and drier it gets as the season progresses , the more stale the cows are and the lesser the feed quality is.

I would like to learn what you do to deal with heat. What is your humidity? What kind of facilities do you have? What are you feeding? Etc

What does your soil temp. get up to?
Have you measured the change post grazing, when the cover is reduced?
Rigging up a small sprinkler to keep yarded cattle cool and stops the sh!t baking to the concrete was a cheap helper, and noticed they definitely gave more milk in the heat (mild compared to yours!)

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Not sure what the soil temp gets up to. It would most likely vary rather significantly depending on cover. Something we should probably do. If we got a rain now things would recover rather quickly. If it doesn't rain in the next couple weeks is when it will be crunch time.

Thus far the cows have been producing very well, despite the heat. I attribute that to the humidity being low, good quality Forage in front of them and low night time temps.

Yeah putting water on the cows while milking is a must, so is a covered holding pen. Fans would help too but there is usually a decent breeze where the barn is.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Holding pen. That hoop structure is not part of it. There are sprayer nozzles plumbed into pipes on the trusses. Open ridge vent as well.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Hasn't rained for 20 days. The top pic is a new seeding that came in with a strong red clover component. Red clover is not very drought tolerant, as you can see.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Bugger. Is that normal for summer?

Over here we tend to think of red clover as being quite drought tolerant but I think we have quite a different meaning of what counts as a drought. We can easily have a month without rain but with temps hovering around 20 c. Days in the mid to high 30s are a killer.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Bugger. Is that normal for summer?

Over here we tend to think of red clover as being quite drought tolerant but I think we have quite a different meaning of what counts as a drought. We can easily have a month without rain but with temps hovering around 20 c. Days in the mid to high 30s are a killer.

It's expected, doesn't make it any less damaging though. I wouldn't call it a drought yet, more of a "dry spell". The old timers here and at home do not say 'drought', they say 'drouth'.

Pretty much the only legume that is drought tolerant and has decent nutrition is alfalfa or lespedeza.

Do you have a typical time of year that it doesn't rain? Feel free to send some of your rain and 20 degree weather this way though!

 

[Baling Hay]

50% drop, that is massive. We have had heat waves with day temps over 45C, overnight temps staying over 30C and then back over 40C by 8:30am and I haven't seen a 50% drop in production.

I agree it's the high night temps that really effect cows. We can get 40C plus through the day but if it gets down to 15-20 overnight the cows are usually fine. Those nights that are 20C plus the cows don't actually cool down before the next day and the heat builds up. I've seen them standing under trees at midnight because they were still hot and trying to cool off. Too stupid to realize that isn't going to help at night.

Didn't realise it was so hot in Outer Space. How far are you from the Sun?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Do you have a typical time of year that it doesn't rain? Feel free to send some of your rain and 20 degree weather this way though!

Not really. We get about 40in rain and it's pretty evenly spread through the year.. By this time growth can drop right away so we grow some summer brassicas to fill that gap but we had a fair dump of rain at the end of last week with more forecast this week so we're pretty well set for the rest of summer now.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Isn't it amazing how just a few degrees make all the difference? We have similar rain fall averages, but averages lie. This year it decided to send most the rain in may.

One of the Irish guys here says this area grows more Forage than Ireland, but one big difference is the lack of consistent growing conditions.

What exactly are the summer brassicas you grow? I see people mentioning fodder beet and stubble turnips, but have no idea what that is. Maybe it's just different terminology to here? As a percentage of your grazing acres, what amount is in annuals?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

We grow 20ac of a hybrid forage rape for summer grazing. It will grow 10t DM / ha in 12-14 weeks which gives me enough for 3-4 kg DM for 40-50 days.

This was last year's, I haven't started this year's yet

The fodder beet will grow 20t+ t DM /ha and we graze this in November. Cows love it and it does wonders for solids, we'll quickly get up to 7% fat and 5 protein once they're eating 4 or 5 kg DM. You have to build them up to this amount slowly or they will die quickly!

The two crops together only make up 10% of the grazing area and I don't grow any other annuals.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Rainfall around here is very localised, from the top of our hill I can see a town 7 miles away that gets 80+ in rain. I'm right on the coast and half the year I can see black clouds and rain in land and blazing sun out to sea.

 

[Blaithin]

Didn't read the whole thread because.... well... I'm lazy and I'm my phone. Sorry if I'm repeating questions.

Do the nurse cows directly raise the calves or are they just milked to fill bottles? If calves are on the cows, how many calves do they raise at once on average, 2-3? Are they all in a pen together? Do calves stick to their cows and vice versa or cows are just communal udders? Have you noticed quicker deterioration in udders due to calves being rough or they hold up just the same as if being milked? What age do you wean at?

 

[marco]

Isn't it amazing how just a few degrees make all the difference? We have similar rain fall averages, but averages lie. This year it decided to send most the rain in may.

One of the Irish guys here says this area grows more Forage than Ireland, but one big difference is the lack of consistent growing conditions.

What exactly are the summer brassicas you grow? I see people mentioning fodder beet and stubble turnips, but have no idea what that is. Maybe it's just different terminology to here? As a percentage of your grazing acres, what amount is in annuals?

have you looked at herbal leys? alot of deep rooted plants might help it drought tolerance?
https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/product/‘herbal’-grazing-ley-four-year-ley

https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/content/herbal-grazing-ley-medium-and-clay-soil

https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/content/ek21-legume-and-herb-rich-sward-whole-field-option

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Didn't read the whole thread because.... well... I'm lazy and I'm my phone. Sorry if I'm repeating questions.

Do the nurse cows directly raise the calves or are they just milked to fill bottles? If calves are on the cows, how many calves do they raise at once on average, 2-3? Are they all in a pen together? Do calves stick to their cows and vice versa or cows are just communal udders? Have you noticed quicker deterioration in udders due to calves being rough or they hold up just the same as if being milked? What age do you wean at?

The nurse calves are in their own herd with the nurse cows. There are 57 calves on 23 cows. Last year they stayed on six months, this year probably the same length or longer. The calves don't really stick to the cows you pair them with, but most will pick cows they favor it seems. If anything nurse calves improve an udder.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

We grow 20ac of a hybrid forage rape for summer grazing. It will grow 10t DM / ha in 12-14 weeks which gives me enough for 3-4 kg DM for 40-50 days.

This was last year's, I haven't started this year's yet
View attachment 554920 View attachment 554926

The fodder beet will grow 20t+ t DM /ha and we graze this in November. Cows love it and it does wonders for solids, we'll quickly get up to 7% fat and 5 protein once they're eating 4 or 5 kg DM. You have to build them up to this amount slowly or they will die quickly!

The two crops together only make up 10% of the grazing area and I don't grow any other annuals.

That stuff looks like it grows very well for you. Why does it improve components so much. ? How do you graze it, just a couple hours before/after milking?

Is it a one and done grazing? We do have Forage rape in our annual mixes, but only 1lb/acre. I reckon if we planted it like that it would just bolt as soon as the heat hits. I will take some pics of the annual mixes here sometime.

Thanks