Key winter decisions for dairy herds

By Michael Donoghue, Teagasc

THE 2019 dairy season is almost finished on most spring calving herds with four to six weeks milking left before drying off for the year.

Decisions made over the next few weeks will have long lasting consequences for the profitability for the dairy business in 2020. Here are some of the key areas to examine:

Grass management

The wet weather since August will mean that on a lot of heavy farms, cows have been housed early.

On these farms the challenge will be getting out again to graze the heaviest of the covers if possible.

If not, this will have to be grazed in spring, when ground conditions allow.

On dryer farms the target will be to have 65% to 75% of the farm closed by the 1st week of November.

This ground will provide grazing for the cows in February and early March. Research has consistently shown that spring grass is twice as valuable as autumn grass.

Body condition scoring (BCS)

The general rules for dry cow periods are: cows, eight weeks, and in the case of first lactation cows, 12 weeks.

So for a first lactation cow calving in the first week of February she should be dry for the last week or two.

If that same cow needed a little extra TLC, eg, was lame, thin or expecting twins, etc, she would need an extra 2 to 3 weeks.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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