Deciding whether to irrigate in early Spring can be a very tricky decision. A (free) shower of rain could suddenly fix the soil moisture level, while a flood irrigation would saturate the soil. Risk management might suggest having a bet each way and flood irrigate only some paddocks. For the fixed … [Read more...]

Paddock 33 is being grazed now and at 62 days rested it has 3.5 leaves regrown at an average leaf appearance rate of 18 days. The grazing rest time has drifted out to 60 days because the current milker stocking rate is simply not high enough yet to eat out the paddocks more quickly. … [Read more...]

The milkers, 65 late lactation adult cows and 30 newly calved 2yr olds, are grazing quite laxly and the dry cows are cleaning up the after the milkers. The advantages of a dry cow clean-up are that the dry cows are being fed, and they can bring the residue down to an ideal level. If not carefully … [Read more...]

Pasture is the cheapest form of feed and dairy farmers have been told for years that to maximise returns their cow’s diet should include a large proportion of pasture dry matter. Last season the Macalister Demonstration Farm produced 155,000kg of milk solids from an average of 310 cows after … [Read more...]

Paddock 16 has just been grazed with 70% of the paddock having a residue of 5 cm which is ideal. The remaining 30% has a residue of 20 cm. However, in amongst that 20cm of dead, spiky, stubble, is 15 cm of green, growing leaves, the latter only accessible by very hungry cows. That 15 cm of feed, on … [Read more...]