Make good decisions when preparing feed.
As we head into the last weeks of lactation for most farms, correct feeding and drying off decisions are important to maximise this season without compromising next.
This month I want to explain the power of a feed budget at this time of the year for your farm.
Why feed budget?
A feed budget simply works through what pasture growth can be expected on average (including nitrogen boost) and total supplements you have available versus animal demand you plan to generate from milking and dry stock on your farm.
Once you know what feed reserves you need to save for winter and spring, the remainder can be factored into your autumn feed budget.
The power of feed budgeting is that it puts you in control of making the right decisions at the right time. There are efficiencies in feeding the right supplement at the right time.
Knowledge is power, and a feed budget provides that knowledge.
Many farms currently have strong levels of supplements and the temptation is to think that you can use it all this autumn and milk deep towards winter. A feed budget will take the guess work out of those decisions.
When should a feed budget be done?
Now — autumn and winter are probably the two most important times for a feed budget because this plans out how you will complete this season and checks that decisions made this season do not impede farm performance next season.
Often there are milk production targets set 12 months earlier that are driven towards with no regard to next season.
It is important to not view seasons as totally separate — each season is linked.
A budget done now should go through to the start of calving. The next step from there will be to do another budget from PSC to your farms feed balance date.
How is a feed budget made?
Free templates are available the DairyNZ website. This will provide a basic feed budget giving you the answer as to whether there is a surplus or deficit of feed for the duration of the budget.
A couple of good feed budgeting programmes that can be purchased are called Farm Max and Feedflo. These can be bought and then your own budgets can be completed allowing multiple scenarios to be considered.
The other option is to employ a farm consultant to create feed budgets for your farm from now to balance date.
The other key part to a good feed budget will show what level of body condition score (BCS) gain can be expected and where your average pasture cover (APC) will track through to the start of calving.
Cow condition
We have enjoyed three months of plenty of grass, but a lot of that was summer grass, and the results have been fully fed cows on low energy (ME) summer grass. The result has been that many herds have lost more weight than normal. The irony is that in drought years, high feeding levels of PK and maize silage helps lift BCS.
So while you may have plenty of supplements to feed, you may not have enough days to meet both milk targets and BCS targets.
Rising three year olds that are calving in late July will need to be >4.5 BCS to keep milking past the middle of April. Mixed age cows will need to be >4.0 BCS to milk past the middle of April.
Basically you need to allow for 80-100 days to take a 4.0 BCS cow or heifer to reach their targets of 5.0 and 5.5 respectively. And that assumes you are feeding 11-12kg of DM/cow/day including some maize, PKE or high quality grass silage.
So take the time to create even a rough feed budget to map out the next two critical months of the season.
This will ensure that the right drying off decisions are made to maximise this season, and ensuring that next season starts in the best way with good pasture cover and cows at BCS targets.