Feed conditions continue to be tight for all the farmlets with lack of rain and below demand growth rates over the last few weeks.
Key Decisions last week:
• All herds will receive straight PKE for the next week as we wait on a new load of PKE: barley blend for the kale herds
o the next batch of the blend will be 70%PKE: 30% barley due to a supply issue with barley. The previous blend has been a 50:50 mix
• PKE is now required for the LI FB herd based on a drop in average pasture cover and the need for baleage top-ups throughout the week as pre-graze covers were below target for a pasture only diet
• Both fodder beet herds will be offered 1 bale baleage/day on top of the PKE to achieve the desired total DM intake of 18 kg/cow.day.
• No nitrogen is to be applied to the Std farmlets again this week due to the lack of soil moisture
• Topping will be minimised as conditions remain dry. The cows will be put back into paddocks to eat any good quality residual above 1600 kg DM/ha. Only paddocks with multi-round residual issues will be considered for topping
• Rotation length will remain at 30+ days for all herds.
• The LI FB herd currently has 2 fewer paddocks than the other herds due to their regrassed paddocks being later established and not yet ready for grazing. They will have one grazing from the ‘spare’ paddock and x2 grazings from pdk 64 as compensation
General Notes
• Milk production for the Std FB herd took a dive this week following the grazing of the pdk we opted to pre-graze mow rather than conserve last week. Production for the kale herds remains more consistent with the inshed feeding option. The LIFB herd continues to fluctuate the most based on which paddock they are grazing in.
• The bulls continue to be rotated through the herds. Over the last week there have been x2 Std Kale, x8 LI Kale, x6 Std FB and x2 LI FB cows observed as cycling from tail paint removal
• There are still x2 new grass paddocks that are still too immature for grazing.
• Pasture growth through December and early Jan has been lower than the same period last year for all farmlets but specifically for the LI farmlets. Trends are very similar to the Woodland's growth rate
• Cumulative rainfall season to date has dropped below last season by 30 mm. This deviation has occurred in the last 2 weeks. Soil temperature is still tracking 1-2 °C higher than in the same period last year.
• Young Stock
o Calves will be weighed and drenched this week and split into 2 mobs with 120 healthy calves above 120 kg live weight being sent off to grazing. The remainder will stay at the support block
o DNA results on the replacements are in and of the 208 animals tested we have 186 with correct parentage (89%), 18 (9%) with dam only match and 4 (2%) that require retesting due to insufficient sample
Click the link below to see this report on our Facebook page
