Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub.
Insights
Feed Management
Introducing in-shed feed to the Future herd to maintain daily area allocation and keep the autumn feed budget on track.
Increasing in-shed feed to the Standard herd to 3.5kg DM per day. Intake will be monitored, with silage introduced if required. Approximately 15T DM less supplementary feed has been fed to the Standards than predicted in the autumn feed budget to 21 April.
Body Condition Score (BCS)
First 30 cows from the Standards to begin the dry-off process this week. They need to gain 0.6 or more BCS before winter.
Crop Results
April crop yields completed. Swedes averaged 12.7T DM/ha, with 30% leaf averaging 9.8% DM, and 70% bulb averaging 8.9% DM. Kale averaged 12.4T DM/ha with an average DM of 10.3%.
Herd Management
Culls continuing to go off on a weekly basis.
Pasture Growth
Significant drop in soil temperature of 2.8°C, negatively impacting growth rates.
Animal Health
Stripping the Future herd as cell count has crept up, using the Delpro system to identify likely offenders.
Standard herd
Average BW Southland herd stocked at 3.2 cows/ha at peak, up to 180 kg N/ha and wintered on swedes.
Future herd
Higher genetic merit herd (127 BW difference) stocked at 2.5 cows/ha at peak, up to 180 kg N/ha and wintered on baleage.
If you have any questions about this week's HubWatch, please contact our team.
