The MDF is still wet after more rain. The farm is milking only 109 cows. All feed margin targets, and the drivers of the feed margin, are above the July targets. The cows are being offered a lot of grass, so pugging is not too bad, and it allows them a reasonable grass intake before the grass gets too muddy.
Paddock 9 is being grazed. It was last grazed with the milkers 53 days ago. The grass on offer is a tale of two stories: there are patches of well grown, long grass, and patches of poorly grown, short grass. The well grown grass, mostly old urine patches, were not grazed short last time. The leaves are dark green, with not much rust, and it has grown at 25 kg DM per ha per day. The poorly grown grass is lacking N and K, has paler green, rustier leaves, was short when grazed last time, was grazed down short again, and it has grown at 8 kg DM per ha per day. Both patches have 2.5 leaves regrown, so a leaf appearance rate, over the 53 days, of 21 days. Three factors are at play here: the height of the grass prior to grazing last time, the height it was grazed down to last time, and the soil nutrients available. A photo of the two sets of grass is on the website.
If the paddock had uniform, higher grass height, a higher feed margin could be achieved. At the previous grazing, the short grazing height (below 5 cm) may have been avoided by a different allocation and/or by feeding more forage supplement, even if the topping of the high patches was then needed. And, after the previous grazing, more N and K application could have been applied. All this would have cost more, but would have produced cheap enough (profitable) extra grass.
| FEED MARGIN PERFORMANCE | MDF TEN DAYS AGO | MDF THIS TEN DAYS | ANOTHER MID FARM | Units |
| Ten days to date: | 21-Jul-20 | 31-Jul-20 | 31-Jul-20 | |
| Milker graze area | 55 | 55 | 70 | Ha |
| Milkers | 109 | 109 | 210 | Head |
| Stocking rate | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | cows/ha |
| Average graze rest time | 46 | 51 | 45 | Days |
| Estm’d pasture consmp’n | 17 | 16 | 19 | kg DM/ha/day |
| Pasture consum’d per cow | 8.4 | 8.1 | 6.4 | kg DM/cow/day |
| Pasture growing spend | $2.28 | $2.28 | $2.10 | $/ha/day |
| Estm’d pasture price | $137 | $142 | $110 | $/T DM |
| Conc (incl additives)supp fed/cow | 6.3 | 6.3 | 7.2 | kg DM/cow/day |
| Conc (incl additives)supp avg price | $370 | $370 | $416 | $/T DM |
| Hay/silage supp fed/cow | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 | kg DM/cow/day |
| Hay/silage supp price | $360 | $/T DM | ||
| Feed Conversion Efficiency | 95 | 93 | 101 | kg MS/tonne DM |
| Total feed intake/cow | 14.5 | 14.2 | 16.9 | kg DM/cow/day |
| NDF Fibre in diet | 30.6% | 30.4% | 28.4% | % NDF |
| Litres/cow | 16.7 | 16.8 | 23.7 | l/cow/day |
| Fat test | 4.41% | 3.99% | 4.01% | % |
| Protein test | 3.93% | 3.96% | 3.37% | % |
| Milk Solids per cow | 1.39 | 1.34 | 1.75 | kg/cow/day |
| Milk price (less levies)/kg MS | $6.60 | $6.66 | $6.57 | $/kg MS |
| Milk price (less levies)/litre | $0.55 | $0.53 | $0.49 | $ per litre |
| Milk income/cow | $9.18 | $8.92 | $11.50 | $/cow/day |
| All feed cost/cow | $3.48 | $3.48 | $5.23 | $/cow/day |
| Margin over all Feed/cow | $5.70 | $5.44 | $6.27 | $/cow/day |
| MOAF /ha /day | $11.30 | $10.78 | $18.80 | $/ha/day |
| Farm MOAF per DAY | $622 | $593 | $1,316 | $/day |
| Feed cost $/kg MS | $2.50 | $2.60 | $2.99 | $/ kg MS |