The Perennial Ryegrass is now seed-heading strongly. Clumps that were grazed to 12 cm at the previous grazing have a lot of well-developed seed-heads, whereas the patches that were grazed to 4 cm have far less. Presumably the shorter grazing removed a lot of rising, but not obvious, heads at the time.
The Prairie Grass, although a productive and reasonably high quality grass, has been seed-heading for some time, and once it starts heading doesn’t stop for months. The weedy grasses (Tall Poa, Annual Poa, and Meadow Foxtail) have been seed heading for some time. Topping after the cows has started. The cost of it will not be held against the margin until those paddocks are grazed in a month’s time.
Soil moisture is near perfect after a fair amount of rain. The rain caused some water-logging, some pugging, and made it difficult to get good graze-out. Some paddocks are yellowish green between the urine patches, showing that some Nitrogen has been washed, or evaporated, out. The spinner-cut paddocks have fared better. The drainage cuts, made some months ago, are now getting blocked by grass and need a light cleanout to function properly, and to cut the un-cuts bits that were left, 30 m apart, in each run.
The Dairy Farm Monitor Project’s recently released figures shows the MDF with a 2.1% Return On Asset. The farm has valued it total asset quite highly. All staff are paid at market rates, which is sometimes higher than the salaries imputed by owner-operators. Shed costs per cow were low, herd costs per cow a bit high, overhead costs per cow and per hectare reasonable, but grass growing costs per hectare were very high.
| FEED MARGIN PERFORMANCE | MDF TEN DAYS AGO | MDF THIS TEN DAYS | ANOTHER MID FARM | Units |
| Ten days to date: | 21-Oct-20 | 31-Oct-20 | 31-Oct-20 | |
| Milker graze area | 68 | 68 | 105 | Ha |
| Milkers | 260 | 270 | 511 | Head |
| Stocking rate | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.9 | cows/ha |
| Average graze rest time | 30 | 28 | 26 | Days |
| Estm’d pasture consmp’n | 50 | 51 | 50 | kg DM/ha/day |
| Pasture consum’d per cow | 13.1 | 12.8 | 10.3 | kg DM/cow/day |
| Pasture growing spend | $3.18 | $3.85 | $3.13 | $/ha/day |
| Estm’d pasture price | $63 | $76 | $62 | $/T DM |
| Conc (incl additives)supp fed/cow | 5.9 | 5.9 | 8.3 | kg DM/cow/day |
| Conc (incl additives)supp avg price | $353 | $353 | $442 | $/T DM |
| Hay/silage supp fed/cow | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | kg DM/cow/day |
| Hay/silage supp price | $/T DM | |||
| Feed Conversion Efficiency | 114 | 114 | 117 | kg MS/tonne DM |
| Total feed intake/cow | 18.8 | 18.5 | 18.6 | kg DM/cow/day |
| NDF Fibre in diet | 33.7% | 33.6% | 28.4% | % NDF |
| Litres/cow | 30.0 | 28.5 | 29.6 | l/cow/day |
| Fat test | 3.86% | 4.15% | 3.84% | % |
| Protein test | 3.36% | 3.30% | 3.54% | % |
| Milk Solids per cow | 2.17 | 2.12 | 2.18 | kg/cow/day |
| Milk price (less levies)/kg MS | $5.74 | $5.69 | $5.76 | $/kg MS |
| Milk price (less levies)/litre | $0.41 | $0.42 | $0.42 | $ per litre |
| Milk income/cow | $12.43 | $12.08 | $12.56 | $/cow/day |
| All feed cost/cow | $2.90 | $3.04 | $4.67 | $/cow/day |
| Margin over all Feed/cow | $9.53 | $9.05 | $7.90 | $/cow/day |
| MOAF /ha /day | $36.45 | $35.93 | $38.44 | $/ha/day |
| Farm MOAF per DAY | $2,479 | $2,443 | $4,037 | $/day |
| Feed cost $/kg MS | $1.34 | $1.43 | $2.14 | $/ kg MS |
| Proportion of grazed grass in diet | 70% | 69% | 55% | % |