In general, farms are a busy place, and during the month of May in particular they are often at their busiest, with many jobs to be completed.
With that in mind, Agriland has put together a list of some of bigger jobs that need to be focused on this month.
May grass
The recent weather conditions have made the management of grass trickier than what would be usual for the time of year.
Poor cleanouts have unfortately been fairly common on farms so far, and the focus should now be on stopping this.
As the weather looks set to improve, focus on achieving residuals and correcting any paddocks that have a lot of poor-quality grass present.
The hope is that as the weather improves, concentrate feeding within the diet can be somewhat reduced.
It is also time – if you haven’t already done so – to reduce the protein percentage in the nut you are feeding. At this time of year, 14% protein is adequate.
Silage
Although the weather has delayed the harvesting of crops on many farms, the target should still be to harvest first cut as early in May as possible.
Obtaining the highest quality silage has a number of benefits, including that it has a significant cost saving associated with it.
If you haven’t already cut, it is important that you are ready once conditions allow. Part of this involves ensuring that all machinery is serviced and ready for action.
You should also have the silage pit cleaned out, effluent channels cleared and have all the silage covers you need.
Once you have harvested the crop it is important to then get the most out of your slurry and reduce the chemical nitrogen (N) requirements when possible.
Weeds
This time of year is the ideal time to deal with any weed issues that may be present in paddocks or fields.
But it is important to correctly identify the weeds that are issue and ensure that the correct product is then used to control these weeds.
Breeding
Breeding is underway on the majority of farms and this results in an increased workload.
The more prepared and the better the plans are, the more smoothly and successful the breeding season should be.
With the breeding season underway, safety once again comes into focus, with possible injuries from handling cows or stockbulls possible.
For farms that were tracking heats prior to the start of breeding, it is important that once the three weeks are hit, any cow that has not been served is checked.
These problem cows need to be checked and corrective actions put in place to get them cycling as quickly as possible.
You should also be monitoring submission rates. The target is to have 90% of cows bred in the first three weeks, which means that on average, 4.3% of the herd is served each day.
May budgeting
Costs remain high in 2023 and milk price has fallen and looks like it will continue to fall for now.
Because of this, it is important that dairy farmers monitor their costs and makes changes where possible to reduce them.
A good 2022 means that some farmers were able to build up some savings, but you should avoiding eating into these if savings can be made elsewhere.
Budgeting is going to be vital in 2023 and this will need to be monitored on a monthly basis as cost and milk prices change.