Milk Production from Forage

 

(A Greenmount College Milk Technology Project in partnership with Richardson’s Fertilizers)

Compared to the rest of Western Europe, the dairy farmer’s main competitive advantage in Northern Ireland is the ability to grow high yields of grass for grazing and silage. Due to transport costs, concentrate feedstuffs will always be more expensive in Northern Ireland than the rest of Europe. Costs of grazed grass, grass silage and concentrates are of the order of 1:2:4 when fixed costs are taken into account.

 

Unfortunately milk prices have fallen by over 20% since the mid 1990s reducing incomes by about £20,000 for a 400,000 litre dairy farm. It is therefore very necessary to make best use of grass followed by silage and then concentrates to feed cows.

 

This project was conceived as a means of demonstrating the skills necessary to utilise the full potential of firstly grass and secondly silage and thereby reduce the feed costs of producing milk. To demonstrate the impact of milk from forage on production costs, it is necessary to work with commercial farmers to benchmark production costs. The commercial farmers involved with the project and the Greenmount College High Forage Herd comprise the 45 Hundred Club.

The Milk from Forage project has a five year time-span which began on 1 April 1997 and will run until 31 March 2002.

1.To manage a herd of 80 cows to achieve targets by the end of the five year project time-span:

2.To demonstrate the management skills necessary to achieve high levels of production from forage through farm walks, development groups and technical seminars.

3. To demonstrate the impact of achieving high levels of milk from forage on milk production costs in a commercial situation.

Table 1. outlines the performance of the main herd at Greenmount College prior to the Milk From Forage project from 1994 - 97.

Table 1. Greenmount dairy herd performance 1994 - 97

Feeding of the cows within the High Forage Herd is aimed at maximising production from forage through a computerised feeding to yield system. The production level from forage is determined from the quality of the forage, the weather conditions while grazing, body condition score, stage of lactation and lactation number.

Cows are grazed on 24 hour paddocks with fresh grass made available at each grazing. Grassland is managed to give cows high dry matter intakes while maintaining high quality grass throughout the grazing period. Grass covers are measured on a weekly basis. The data is used to decide on stocking density as growth rates fluctuate during the season. The aim is to graze cows on pre-grazing grass covers of between 3,500 to 3,800 kg DM/ha (above ground level). Target post-grazing grass covers are 1,600 to 1,800 kg DM/ha. Grass is topped as necessary during the season and paddocks removed for big bale silage during periods of rapid grass growth.

Silage for the High Forage Herd is made using a 24 hour rapid wilt system with the following targets:

The aim is to feed freshly calved cows on first cut silage during the winter housing period.

Producing milk off grass is a critical component of the project. When conditions dictate, the management aim is to graze cows from early March to late November with grass supplemented with silage during the early and late grazing seasons.

Concentrate rations are purchased for the High Forage Herd on a tendering system. The rations used are formulated to complement forage. Concentrates are fed at the rate of 0.35 kg/litre of milk yield above the potential production from the forage. Concentrates for first lactation heifers are allocated on the basis of three litres less production taken from forage as their intake potential relative to cows is limited. Potential production levels from forage for 1998 are provided in Table 2.

Table 2. Potential production from forage 1998 - 99

Bull selection for the High Forage Herd is based on breeding animals with the potential of sustaining high milk yields from forage based diets over five lactations. This requires animals with good body capacity and sound feet, legs and udders.

Bull selection is based on the criteria set out in Table 3. This is based on PTA 95 information.

Table 3. Selection criteria PTA 95

All cows are condition scored each month at Greenmount College. Feeding strategy is aimed at minimising condition score loss during early lactation. Target condition scores on a scale of 1 to 5 are:

Calving   3.0

Service   2.0 - 2.5

The calving pattern for the high forage herd is being moved slightly towards winter/spring calving with the first animals calving at the beginning of November and continuing through until the end of March. This avoids the difficulties of managing fresh calved cows on autumn grass and ensures that the herd will have a relatively high daily yield when grass is at its peak production potential during April and May.

Progress made with the High Forage Herd over the first year is highlighted by the data presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Herd Performance 1997/98

In financial terms this improvement was worth an additional £5,000 for the herd or 1.1 pence per litre added to the bottom line.

Benchmarking in dairy farming is the process of comparing herd performance against a set of standards or measurements of relevance to the resources and systems of production being operated within the business. The 45 Hundred Club gives the farmers involved and other farmers interested, the opportunity to compare their farm performance with others to a high level of detail.

All the farms involved are achieving relatively high levels of milk from forage across a variety of systems. These farms are neither unique nor the elite in Northern Ireland. The Richardson’s Milk Chek results would indicate that in 1998 some 80 farmers out of approximately 450 were achieving over 4,000 litres from forage. The aim of working with these farmers is twofold.

Firstly, to benchmark with these farmers to determine how the management results achieved at Greenmount College compare with good commercial farms. Secondly, to demonstrate what is possible on commercial farms both physically and financially to reduce milk production costs.

The production systems operated and the milk yields achieved on these farms vary depending on farm resources and priorities. Some farmers are producing high yields of milk from forage with minimal concentrate inputs and average yields per cow, while others are producing high yields per cow with a large proportion of the yield attributed to forage.

The physical performance of the herds involved in the 45 Hundred Club are illustrated by the data in Table 5.

Table 5. Physical performance of the 45 Hundred Club 1997/98

At a financial level, the farms involved are all keeping detailed farm management accounts. This allows total milk production costs to be calculated for each farm. Table 6 illustrates the range of milk production costs on the farms involved.

The data available to date clearly show that farmers achieving high levels of milk from forage can produce milk at a total cost of 11.1 pence per litre. Increasing milk production from forage has a direct impact on variable costs of production. It is important to note that there is more fluctuation in overhead costs than in variable costs. Variable costs are being controlled through achieving high levels of milk from grass and silage. Control of overhead costs requires equal attention to reduce overall milk production costs. This data will be monitored over the lifetime of the project to establish trends in costs of production among farmers trying to maximise production from forage.

Table 6. The 45 Hundred Club production costs per litre

Technical Note prepared by Martin Mulholland and David Wright Greenmount College

Copies of this leaflet can be obtained from Greenmount College. Tel: 01849 426772 Further information on Greenmount College Milk Technology projects can be found on our website at: www.greenmount.ac.uk

ISBN 1 85527 362 4