Over the past 24 months or so, farmers around the country have experienced some pretty extreme weather conditions. Areas typically dry over spring, summer and autumn were significantly wet over the 2023 season. While the unusual weather patterns have been punishing for some, for others, it has been a boon with abundant pasture growth setting up the perfect conditions for a bumper mating period.
This season, the national reproductive performance has recorded a 69% six-week in-calf rate across the country – up from 66% seen in previous years. This means, on average, on Co-op farms the calving period is likely to be compressed. The upshot is farmers will have more milking days in the long-term but they do need to prepare now.
Farm Source’s Programme Manager of Environmental Sustainable Dairying, Louise Cook, says the increase in in-calf rates has resulted from an “awful lot of hard work” on farms around the country, boosted by the weather, which will bring efficiencies and increased productivity in the future.
“In essence, you’ve got an additional 3% of your herd calving in both the first three and six-week periods, which means you’ll have 3% of the herd milking for 42 days longer than last season, and that’s significant. The improved six-week in-calf rate also compresses the calving spread overall. This is the best way to get productivity out of your cows but it does shift our feed demand relative to previous years,” Louise says.
“With more cows calved earlier, farms with 400-500 cows may find they need an extra 10 tonnes of feed at the start of the season before grass kicks in. It can be a bit of surprise if you haven’t prepared. You’ve got a window now to prepare and make a plan.”
Louise suggests now is the time to fine tune your feed budget to ensure there is enough feed to make the extra milk.
“By making small changes to feed demand or supply now, farmers can protect themselves and ensure that they capture the milk this season, and ensure the improvement in in-calf rate is a long-term gain. Ultimately we want to be maintaining this increased in-calf rate season after season.”
Farm Source’s Programme Manager (Vets) for On Farm Excellence Animals team, Tennielle Ellingham, says focussing on nutrition is essential for transition, where the cow moves from late pregnancy into lactation.
“Let's make sure there is a really robust plan of how to manage cows through that transition period. Taking a proactive approach and working with your vet to get all your ducks in a row to address animal health issues early makes good sense. It means we can pull everything together and capitalise on this increase in in-calf rate, and keep building on it. Truly meeting the energy requirements of our cows is by far the biggest piece of the puzzle, but farmers also need to be thinking what could hinder progress on their farm and get ahead of that,” Tennielle says.
Calving can be a busy time on farm anyway but provided the farm has enough resources on hand the increase in calving numbers and compressed time period shouldn’t pose too much of an issue, Louise says.
“If calving does happen thick and fast, it means that your demand for replacement calf milk is faster and can run ahead of the herd so farmers need to plan for this. But by the same token, with that shift of everything being earlier, you come off the wave a lot more quickly. Rather than having that flatter, drawn-out grind for three months, it goes a little bit faster in the first six weeks and then settles down and the numbers drop to being quite minimal later on. Then the sun really comes up,” she says.
“Shifting the six week in-calf rate is amazing for production potential on farm but there is a different feed set up required. Resetting your feed plan alongside this new demand is the single most important thing farmers can do right now to capitalise on this opportunity. Quite simply, to get the best out of her now, make sure you can feed her.”