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DairyNZ Comment:
22 Jan 2020
Farm Data
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Date Collected
22 Jan 2020
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Soil temp
22.0
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Growth
15 kgs DM/day
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APC
1850 kgs DM/ha
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Rainfall
8 mm
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BCS
4.8
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% in milk
93 %
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MS/cow
1.70 kgs
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MS/ha
6.30 kgs
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MS/ha YTD
1473 kgs
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Rotation
26 days
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MS/cow YTD
- kgs
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Nitrogen YTD
120 kgs/ha
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Supplements
9.9 kgs/cow/day
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Supplements YTD
1450 kgs/cow/day
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Weight Gain
- kgs/day
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Stocking Rate
3.66 su/ha
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Crude Protein Level
-
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MJME
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It’s been a while since we can say we’ve had a decent period of rainfall. The showers we received over the weekend, whilst appreciated, will have only bought us a few days grace. Most of the monitor farms have been struggling to achieve pasture growth rates in excess of daily stock demand and there is pressure on pasture covers. Pasture growth rates through the late summer and autumn period are typically less than stock demand and we need to have a plan in place to manage this period. After autumn rain and very rapid pasture growth there is the opportunity to increase pasture cover by keeping on a slow rotation. Do not speed up the rotation to fully feed the herd as this will not allow pasture covers to increase.
Summer pasture is higher in drymatter than spring pasture, so we need to make the appropriate adjustments when we’re allocating pasture. Be aware that if more than 3kg maize silage is fed during mid/late lactation, supplementation with Magnesium and Calcium in particular is recommended as an inexpensive insurance against the risk of metabolic disorders such as Grass Staggers and Milk Fever.
The issue over whether to use supplements if you are short of feed isn’t straight forward. Their use can be profitable providing you apply best practice management and purchase the supplement at the right price. The immediate milk response is unlikely to fully cover the supplement cost, but if feeding results in maintaining more cows in milk through the late lactation period, then it may well be economic. The Supplement Price Calculator (dairynz.co.nz/feed/supplements/supplement-price-calculator/) takes all these factors into account.
We need to pay plenty of attention to the climate and be prepared to take action to build both average pasture cover and cow BCS through the next month.