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Dairy Reminders For October 2005

By Department of Primary Industries - 19th October 2005 - Back to News

Pastures

Long term average growth rates for October are 50 - 80 kg DM/ha/day across Gippsland.

Graze pastures at 3 fully emerged leaves.

As pasture stems become elongated and seed heads begin to emerge it may be necessary to graze pastures at 2 -3 leaves to maintain milking quality feed.

Graze pastures down to 5 cm between the clumps. This becomes difficult with stem elongation and seed head emergence occurring in spring. Using the topper may be better than forcing the milking cows to eat it.

Ryegrass leaf emergence rates are around 8 – 10 days per leaf, therefore a rotation length of 24 – 30 days would be needed to grow between two and a half to three leaves again.

Sow pasture seed on any bare areas damaged by redheaded cockchafers.

Avoid grazing the harvested silage paddocks to clean up the excess cut grass left behind, as the cows will eat off the new green shoots which drastically reduces the quantity of feed grown in the next few weeks.

Feeding concentrates in the dairy during spring

Keeping some bail feed in the cows diet will ensure they can achieve their potential production during spring. Monitor any reductions in concentrate feeding to ensure the milk vat level holds at the present level. If the vat drops then keep the concentrate in, but if the milk increases cows are being fully fed in the paddock.

Early spring pastures are high in protein therefore some grain or pellets in the shed will help to balance up the protein/energy ratio of the diet, thus maintaining higher milk production.

Avoid acidosis by keeping the diet constant and only reduce or increase the concentrate by half a kilogram per day and not more than 2 kg per week. Consider adding a rumen pH buffer if feeding grain is greater than 4 kg per day.

If changing feed (say from barley to triticale) blend the new and old grains together over the first few days to allow the rumen to adjust to the new feed. Check the feed troughs during milking to ensure that some cows are not leaving feed while others eat a double share and become ill.

Ensure the milking herd is fully fed every day during spring. Don't take any paddocks out of the rotation until you are sure that all your cows are being fully fed and you have a genuine surplus of pasture. Calculating the potential pasture surplus by working out what the herd will need in pasture on a daily basis and subtracting this from the expected average growth rates will give you a guide to the total area of the farm that could be surplus.

Calves

Calves may become bored in the calf shed. Try suspending a few objects from the ceiling for them to suck, nuzzle, rub and play with. It may prevent them sucking ears or gate catches in the pens.

Having a radio playing in the calf shed helps calves to adapt to unusual noises and sounds which will help them adapt to the noise of the dairy later in life.

Calves need to be consuming good quality calf meals or pellets plus clean barley straw by 4 – 6 weeks. This helps to encourage early rumen development in your calves. Therefore introduce the feed and straw at week one.

Heifers

At 12 months of age are your heifers up to their target liveweight of 280 kg for Friesians and 220 kg for Jerseys?

At 15 months old (mating time), Friesians should be 330 kg liveweight (lwt) while Jersey heifers should weigh 250 kg.

At 21 months Friesians need to be 450 kg lwt and Jerseys 350 kg lwt.

Calving weights at 24 months old are 520 kg lwt for Friesians and 400 kg lwt for Jersey heifers.

Irrigation

With some rain events occurring during spring, it is easy to think that the soil moisture is being maintained. Constant checks are required to compare evaporation and rainfall to ensure you make an informed decision on irrigation frequency.

Ensure irrigation drainage does not enter or back up onto the silage/hay paddocks. Check bay outlets for leaks and clean drains.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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