Demo farm grass better than most

After the very wet August and first three weeks of September, the past month has been relatively dry which has been very welcome, however cooler and windy conditions have generally kept pasture growth to moderate levels.

For this spring the situation on the Stratford Demonstration Farm has not been typical of most in the district as the farm has had reasonably good pasture growth and a good feed situation compared to slow growth and feed shortages on many other farms.

However, like other farms, milk production is well down on last season but the management system has also been quite different with a change in trials being run.

The farm was operated as a single farm one herd moderate stocked system up until September 22 and then split into a short term two herd farmlet trial, with one herd on all-grass feeding with no supplement and the other continuing to have PKE supplement fed and higher milk production while still trying to maintain good pasture utilisation and quality.

The aim is to assess the benefit of feeding quality supplement to cows being adequately fed on pasture: looking at milk production, cow condition and mating effects. Both herds are milking 3.3 cows/ha and are currently on a 21-day grazing round with 16 per cent of the farmlets shut for silage and with more likely out if growth is good this week.

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The first was missed out fairly early and will be harvested this week if weather allows.

Both herds are eating around 16kg DM/cow of pasture while the supplement herd is getting 2kg PKE/cow/day on top of this. Milk production is around 1.85kg and 2kg ms/cow/day for the control and supplements herds respectively and 5.8 and 6.5kg ms/ha which is a reasonable response to the supplement at the moment but this could change easily.

Total milk production is down 10 per cent daily and 13 per cent in total on last year, but there are 5 per cent fewer cows and 28 per cent less supplement has been fed to milkers.

Following the busy calving period, the coming period will also be busy with mating from this week along with silage harvesting and spring fertiliser applications beginning.

The general aim is to have the cows on the 21 odd day round, taking out surplus grass paddocks to keep grazing residuals around 1600kg DM/ha and harvesting the silage so paddocks are back into the round to extend the rotation over late November and December as needed.