Category: News

While we have had a great summer so far in terms of weather, Teagasc had done a survey that shows that two thirds of farmers will be 23% short of fodder next year. With the recent dry spell and slower grass growth rates this may be difficult to claw back for most farmers so the advice is to plan ahead.

Last year it was the farmers that sat down and planned ahead that managed to get through the spring without fodder shortages. So it is never too early to plan ahead for winter.

The first step is to measure the fodder available on the farm. It is vital to get the average height of the pit right when calculating the total tons of pit silage (length by width by average height). Over or under estimating by a foot can throw the calculation out by 10 to 12 %.

If after your calculations that you find yourself to be one of the two thirds of farmers short of fodder then you have plenty of options if you act early. The earlier you act the better your situation will be.

The common solutions are to:

A. Sell a few animals (selling 10 cull cows will save you 80tons of fodder)

B. Buy in fodder ( straw will be available soon)

C. Feed more concentrates (1kg of concentrate replaces 5kgs of fodder).

You may find a combination of these options will suit you best.

The promised rain is back again after an unprecedented spell of dry weather.

With ground conditions very dry and grass growth all but halted due to the lack of moisture it is a welcome sight. The additional moisture coupled with the high temperatures should go some way to getting growth levels back to an acceptable level but for all farmers careful grass maintenance is required. Fields that were cut for silage and hay will be that little bit slower to green up.

The recent fine spell has also seen as a great chance to take out paddocks for hay. This hay is for the most part high quality and a welcome addition to the fodder stocks for winter 2014.

It is a great time to clean out the straw storage on farm and ready the bale trailer also as the grain harvest is well underway in the Midlands and East Cork. The demand for straw is quite high so prices of straw delivered and availability may become an issue.

Talk to your local grain growers about buying straw, there is no point looking for it when it is all gone or paying big money for it in February.

 

Its great to see a spell of weather that we can work around. There has been more high quality silage made to date than there was in the entire 2012 silage season. With the rise in temperatures predicted over the next few days grass growth should take off again shortly.

This has led to its own challenges with a burst of growth when temperatures rise and a slowdown when they fall. This makes grass management tricky and those decisions on when to take out a paddock for silage all the more difficult and important.

The general advice seems to be to keep an eye on the weather temperatures over the 5 to 7 day forecast and make your decisions as best you can from there.

Move as early as you can and get the bales off the land while the weather holds.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the rest of your enterprise during silage season! The obvious jobs such as feeding cattle and cows, ensuring that feed bins and houses are kept stocked, fencing and repairs should not suffer because the weather is good.

Remember to plan ahead for the next few weeks to make the most of any opportunity that summer weather brings.

 

 

After the last ten days of great weather you could be forgiven for putting the travails of the last 18 months behind you for a while. Grass growth has picked up finally and land is recovering well.

Some key points to bear in mind for the next few weeks.

Grass growth will slow drastically over the next month to 6 weeks. Careful budgeting and planning is vital to manage your grass to maximise silage potential for next winter.

The choice of waiting for the sward to thicken at the expense of Dry matter digestibility quality is your own choice to make and depends on your farming operation.

In our own farming operation we have made our first cut pit silage last week. In common with most farmers, we currently do not have enough mouths to keep ahead of the grass so we will take out selected paddocks in the next week or ten days for bales.

These should be very good quality bales and will be stored aside to be fed to finishing cattle when needed.

After the last few years and with the current level of fodder in the country it would seem advisable to take as much potential good quality fodder as you can to avoid or help alleviate a potential fodder shortage next spring.

Think before you cut! Decide on what you want to cut and stick to it. If it means coming back and cutting more in another 2 weeks so be it.

After a very challenging harvest in 2012 following the difficult weather conditions we are all hoping that 2013 will be a lucky year for all Irish Farmers.

Taking advantage of the dry frosty spell of weather we at John O’Connells have been very busy getting land ready for Spring Barley and Oats.

While the ploughing was completed for the most part in January with a Sanderum 6 furrow semi -mounted plough, the soil reflected the difficult summer and harvesting conditions. Thankfully the frosty weather has helped soften and break up the ploughed ground quite substantially.

Following the first spell picking stones from the ploughed ground the ground was then tilled with a Kuhn power harrow twice and the stones picked again.

We then set the seed using a kongskilde cultivater and seed drill. This does a lovely job of levelling the tilled ground and packing the seed bed.

Heres hoping that we get good growing conditions for a great harvest in 2013!

We have all been told that the Rumen is vital to a healthy productive animal so here is a quick run down on some interesting points about the Rumen.

 

The rumen allows the animals to get the majority of their nutrients from forages and other Roughages. Non ruminant animals like ourselves cannot obtain any real nutritional value from most plant sources unless the food has been modified, ground mashed etc.

A ruminant animal has 4 stomachs, the Reticulum, the Rumen, the Omasum and the Abomasum.

 

The Rumen is the largest part of the digestive system measuring up to 50 gallons and situated on the left hand side of the abdomen.

 

It is essentially a large fermentation vat where forages are stored, mixed and broken down further by billions of microbes in the Rumen. These microbes help to break down the forage into manageable substances that can be absorbed through the wall of the Rumen and also by creating microbial protein from the forages.

 

These microbes are vital to getting the most from the food sources and it is vitally important that the rumen ph is kept stable and around the level PH 6. If the PH drops to a more acidic environment due to incorrect nutrition these microbes shut down and die and the food in the Rumen does not get broken down quickly. Thus the animal is full and cannot absorb enough nutrients to produce milk or beef at the levels we need.

 

When we are formulation our feeds we must keep in mind that our feeds need to:

1. Keep the Microbes and bugs in the Rumen alive by maintaining a stable PH by using the correct type and amount of cereals such as Wheat, Barley and Maize. These are great feed ingredients which we can get volumes of them into an animal by balancing the formulations correctly. Too much of these in the incorrect order or poor feeding management can cause a drop in PH and acidosis can occur.
2. We must feed the microbes in the Rumen by providing them with nutrients to allow them to multiply, and carry out their job of converting forages into nutrients that the animal can absorb in the Rumen. Essentially we need to provide them with fuel to do the job for us.
3. We must also balance the proteins and more importantly the types of proteins in our feeds to ensure that we do not create excess Nitrogen levels in the animal which is toxic to it and which leads to the animal wasting its own energy converting this excess nitrogen into urine and other associated by-products. This process can be extremely wasteful in terms of lost potential energy that the animal could be using to grow or produce milk.
4. We also formulate our feeds to provide correct levels of bypass protein. These bypass proteins do not get broken down in the rumen. Rather it is absorbed farther on the digestive system in the small intestine. We do this so that when an animal eats its feed that it is not all broken down in an hour or two spent in the rumen and abomasum. We want some of that protein to travel to the small intestine where it can be readily absorbed into the animal’s bloodstream very efficiently. Thus it spreads out the work for the animal to absorb these nutrients throughout the day.

 

So in short the Rumen is vital to a productive animal and maintaining the rumen at a stable PH and not making big changes to the diet can have huge benefits to the productivity and efficiency of the animal.

Using the latest research findings and our years of experience in Animal Nutrition we formulate all our feeds more maximum Rumen nutrient absorbtion Efficiency. Hence our range of high energy feeds have performed so well over this winter even with poor fodder quality in many farms.

 

Contact us for more information on our range of balanced high efficiency feeds.

With increased demand for our feedstuffs over the last few years and as further commitment to operating a top quality reliable transport system, we have taken delivery of a new DAF CF tractor unit supplied by McAuiliffes Kerry Truck sales in Castleisland.

It is fitted with the latest clean engine emmisions technology to be the cleanest most efficient solution to powering a modern reliable truck.

With new  strict legislation on truck weights and strict enforcement of driver hours we feel that is it vital to provide our customers with reliable forms of transporting our feed. After all the last thing our customers want to hear is that the delivery they are waiting for is delayed because of a breakdown.

 

 

What are our Grazing options in 2013?

 

Now that we can be planning to get cows out on grass what are our options to boost profits in 2013?

 

Here at John O’Connell feeds we have been working hard to formulate a new range of feed for cows at grass to maximise the cow’s potential milk yield.

 

The nutritional needs of cows on grass differ from the needs of cows in housing and on silage.

When we are using silage as the main source of feed we need to supplement the diet with energy, digestible protein, digestible fibre and a balanced mineral intake to fill the cow’s nutritional needs for calving and fertility.

 

With cows on good quality leafy grass their protein needs should be largely met by the grass. Teagasc maintain it is possible to get a high quality 3 to 4 year old cow to take in 18 to 20 kilos of Dry matter through grass alone but this is in ideal conditions and on ideal grass. They are totally correct using grass to boost the DM intake has huge positive effects on Milk Yield and Animal Health. Unfortunately in Ireland with our weather conditions this is all too often not viable using grass alone.

 

The key to maximising the yield of our cows at grass is in getting this DM intake up. How do we do this?

1. We feed very high quality leafy grass.
2. Do not force to graze very tight or restrict cow’s intake.

 

This is fine in theory but in practice is very difficult to achieve. If you are grazing very tight some cows will be hungry coming into the parlour and milk yield will drop. If you don’t graze tight then the grass will become stemmy for the next rotation!

In poor grazing conditions wet grass plays havoc with the digestive process leading to loose cows and a wasted intake.

At some stage we will have to graze grass that is not ideal or make up a shortfall of grass due to fertiliser restrictions.

Another problem is feeding high levels of Barley or Wheat at grass can cause cows to cut their DM intake through grass as Barley and Wheat have a high substitution rate. That is feeding large amounts of Barley in the diet through straight Barley or Crimped grain the cow will not be able to take in as much grass as she will be digesting the Barley.

At some stage we will be forcing cows to graze down grass to very low levels and this stemmy material will not be of much nutritional benefit to cows. It will be harder to digest and stay in the rumen for long periods as it is being broken down. Obviously while this material is in the rumen there is very little room for anything else such as high quality leafy grass.

 

The Key is Boosting the dry matter intake!!

 

Here at John O’Connell Feeds we are well aware of these problems and have come up with several options for our customers to solve these problems and maximise returns from the cow.

We have formulated some new feeds that are high in good quality digestible fibre to help the cow intake more and increase milk yield for economical returns.

 

Dairy Maize2Graze nut

 

This is a new product specially formulated for 2013,

It is designed for high yielding cows on good quality grass and in good grazing conditions. It contains 30% Maize and a high level of digestible fibre to boost dry matter intake from raw materials such as Maize, Beet pulp, Soya Hulls, Rapeseed, Barley etc. With the protein coming from Grass in the diet this feed has been formulated at 14% protein to boost the milk yield through helping to increase the Dry Matter intake.

 

Dairy MaxGrass nut

 

This is a slightly more economical option to achieve a similar desired Dry Matter intake boost in the cow’s diet. Containing raw materials that are high in Digestible fibre feeding a relatively small quantity of this will boost the DM intake and give a higher milk yield at a low cost. It contains Beet pulp, Soya Hulls, Barley etc.

 

 

 

Feeding your cows modest levels of our high digestible fibre feed should result in higher DM intakes, higher milk yields, healthier cows through balanced mineral intake and easier milking.