Ballyhaise Agricultural College projects its 2014 milk sales to total €230,000 according to a recent farm update.
The Ballyhaise dairy enterprise consists of a 120-cow herd with a farm size of 100 acres and has milk sales to date in 2014 of €195,000.
In terms of major costs Ballyhaise outline that its meal costs have totalled €18,000 with fertiliser costs €16,000.
There has been 34mm of rain over the last seven days on the farm. The grass growth has since fallen to 30kg DM/ha and demand is 45kg DM/ha. Farm grass covers will now drop as a result. Soil temperature is at 12.5 C.
Ballyhaise started to close paddocks from the October 1, target is to have 60% grazed by the October 25. According to its update it has 35% closed to date because we grazed some lower covers, we will struggle to hit the target so we have decided to maintain feed levels at 2kg.
Ballyhaise plans to graze 1.1ha per day average for next two weeks in order to meet the autumn planner targets.
Grass Dry Matter is currently 15% and cows are grazing down to 4.0cm on average. Grass growth to date is 15.2 tonnes DM/ha.
The reseeded fields in Ballyhaise has emerged but not as well as hoped as we have not been able to graze it due to the deterioration in weather conditions.
Current cow performance: Milk yield 14.5 kg, 5.04% fat, 4.05% protein (1.31kg MS/cow), SCC 193,000 and TBC 5,000.