Grass growth has dropped back to approximately 70kg dry matter (DM) per hectare, which is to be expected as we approach the longest day of the year.
Agricultural covers (AFC) averaged 672kg DM/ha last week, with pre-grazing production averaging 1,515kg DM/ha, according to PastureBase.
Considering how the farmer is aiming for an AFC of 650kg DM/ha and a pre-grazing yield of 1,400kg DM/ha, this week’s figures look fairly good.
However, there is still inconsistency among recording farms, with 35% of farms under the target of 555 kg DM/ha.
A further 33% of farms are over target and are handling 741 kg DM/ha, while another 32% of registered farms are on target.
Diet
The most important thing in June is to maintain good quality grass before the cows, to try to keep them Milk production Improving the protein content of milk.
Getting into high-quality covers will increase herd consumption of grass, which will allow the farmer to allocate 18-19 kg.
This should support up to 25kg of milk; However, if the lids are very strong, this may drop to 20-21kg of milk.
Grass alone will never support a cow’s needs, especially when it comes to essential minerals like calcium, phosphorus, iodine, selenium and zinc.
Therefore, you will need to feed concentrates, but this must be done in a balanced way.
We need to ensure that the requirements of cows are met, especially in relation to breeding where fertility can be affected.
But at the same time, committing to four or five kilograms of concentrates will only reduce grass consumption, as every 2kg of additional meal fed displaces 0.5kg of grass, ultimately increasing your costs.
Ideally, cows should be getting at least 1.5kg of concentrate at this time of year, if grassland cover and quality are within target.
If demand exceeds growth over the next two weeks, this ration can be increased to 2.5-3.5kg of meal to prevent a grass deficit.
For farms still dealing with surplus grass, it is important not to take concentrates out of the diet completely, and instead remove pastures from the surplus bale rotation.
Crude protein
For every unit of feed energy (UFL) a cow needs, she will need 100-105 grams of intestinal digestible protein (PDI).
Therefore, if a cow eats 17.5 UFL per day, her diet should comply with a PDI content of 1840 grams per day.
If there is an excess of PDI in her system from high-crude protein dairy products, her production can actually be reduced.
This is because the cow will have to burn energy during the process of converting ammonia back into urea for excretion.
Farmers should therefore only feed 14% hickory, or consider 12% hickory if grass quality is ideal and cows are consistently heading to ideal covers.
