I m sorry but running 300 acres of Kildare land in a beef and tillage system is a completely different proposition to running a dairy herd constrained by milking platform made up of reclaimed rock and bog in West cork
I can't believe you made that statement
The thing is we are able to produce top quality silage with only 14 units nitrogen sprayed per acre so the savings with red clover are minimal and the grass only system is much more reliable. Then there is more flexibility with the grass only in that you can graze it as well. Cutting grass every 6 weeks the reseed will last indefinitely. we have one 30 acre field reseeded 12 years ago used for silage only and it is as good today as the day it was sowed.
Don't know why I put in a field of red clover this year, sorry for doing it now, the only thing is the grass and white clover I put with it should last the pace.
Well thats the trend of farmer round me same lads used to be big teagasc men with paddocks fancy suckler units new jeeps tractors till the money ran out
Chalk and cheese comes to mind….
You put in red clover cause of all the teagasc hype.Them boys are off there heads.Multipecies swards havent heard of them lately.wud be much better to sow old pasture seeds than that crap as it will survive without fert like id say 90 percent of beef farm pasture
What do you mean by ‘sowing old pasture seeds’ ? By definition old pasture is land not reseeded.
Seems a lot of solutions are more aimed at drought resistance etc and general good weather conditions. Would be more confident if some of these trials were done in heavier or higher rainfall areas
HOw long are you putting out that leveller of nitrogen for silage and I presume that is with.slurry?
I'd say he means older varieties of grass seed which aren't as palatable anyway and do have a slightly deeper rooting system and an even deeper one with less nitrogen spread ...... like on beef farms. SORRY MOO REPLIED TO WRONG POST
5 years and yes it get slurry and K for each cut one application of phoscalia.
My understanding is that the PRG in modern MSS mixes is the type that’s been bred for high N systems.
Again, it’s only my interpretation but the PRG for MSS, unless there’s only small amounts and 10-12 other species in the mix, should be specifically bred for inclusion in MSS. And not just the regular stuff lying around for non-MSS mixes.
Sorry wasn't referring to old grass, was talking re clover/ multi species etc discussion. Have put in a bit of clover here in drier half of farm and grazing in shoulders or even wet weather is more difficult than grass swards, I'm judging that at least 50% of my ground just isn't suitable for it.
Ya agree re the wetter ground clover is just not suitable for a large parts of the country
You can get modern varities of meadow fesue,cocksfoot,creeping red fescue.Very drought tollerant will respond to fert but wont die if doesnt get extremely super ground cover ive sown it on rough land super job
Interesting snippet from the latest journal podcast, aidan was at a group last week where the ms sent for the group last year averaged circa 480kgs, and this year it was down to circa 430kgs with the same levels of meal fed at 900kgs, really hammers home how tough a year it was weather-wise
Il tell ya what happened to lads cows were fed bad silage last spring then a drought more bad silage if they had less cows theyd be able to make good silage like i do .My milk is 5 percent behind last year but i fed alot more meal
Will you be sure to let us know when the open day on your farm is ….you make everything sound so handy ….be great to get some tips from such a top level farmer ….
My neighbours know not to mess with me i can tell u that
l sent more milk this year. I’d say you’re not as good a farmer as you think
I sent less with less cows, shite year.
I said it before pm me if you want to visit no one took me up on offer.How about we all meet for a xmas party.
Hardly that great now when yer 5% down and more meal put through them.
Whereas this lad is down 10% and kept meal the same
I milk recorded the last time about five years ago. I was recording and milking on my own. For the craic when milking the worst cow I had, I used to milk the cow across with out stopping the recorder. I think I made her into a 10000l cow by the end of year
You'd only be fooling yourself
I remember my dad telling me of when he was on the milk board they were discussing an apparent top breeder in the country at the time fiddling the yields. When they said the name, he nearly dropped a near neighbour. He said before they throw them out of the scheme he'd go chat to them. There's no advantage in the long run for anyone by making up figures. They dont farm anymore.
Did I claim otherwise??🙄 I have similar ground in North Mayo, but run a system that suits it in terms of sensible stocking rates and slurry capacity etc. The issue is more about shoe-horning high input NZ/PRG Dairy models into land thats clearly unsuitable in terms of soil, climate, erosion/runoff/nutrient loss issues etc.
that 30 acre field gets a fair whack of slurry put out on it after each cut....
im not being smart with you now my friend but your feeding 3kgs meal in springtime to freshly calved cows.. your putting out 14units of nitrogen/acre on silage ground and your only feeding a pinch of meal at the moment to cows and they are doing 18litres... i know your silage is good and youve maize and wholecrop.. but you have me scratching my head.... and im sure im not alone....
I would take a lot of milk recording yields with a pinch of salt.
Co-op performace reports are a far superior way of judging farm performance.
Lots of herds will have individual cows doing 4%protein, its an entirely different thing for the milk supplied to the coop to average 4%protein
As you know full well the nitrogen is sprayed with humates, that's the reason for the low nitrogen applications. The silage ground gets 80 Kgs urea per Hectare and the grazing gets 40 Kgs per Hectare. Do the sums. Regarding the meal to fresh cows we pit 300 tons of a mix of distillers and bread, that's what they get. That is 50% DM.
