As spring-calving dairy farms enter into the dry period it is a good time to review farm performance in 2022 and identify areas for improvement in 2023.
2022 was a year of high input costs, but it was also the year of record milk prices which have returned good incomes to dairy farmers.
However, although returns were good on farms this year, there most likely are still areas that can be improved on within the farmgate.
Farm performance
A key factor in driving profitability on dairy farms is grassland and grazing management.
Being able to maximise the amount of grass in the cows’ diet and the number of days at grass is a key driver of profitability.
Although 2022 posed a number of challenges with many farms affected by drought, farmers should still complete a review and looks at areas in need of improvements.
Some questions farmers can ask themselves include:
- Are all my paddocks performing, do I need to reseed?
- Do I have good enough access to all my paddocks? Would extra roadways help?
- Did I make too many, or not enough bales last year?
- Am I maximising the number of days at grass?
- In relation to soil fertility, do some paddocks need lime?
- Did I reach grass growth targets and how much concentrates/cow were fed?
When completed, this may also be a good time to look at paddocks that could have clover sown in them.
These paddocks will have a low weed burden – maybe none at all – and have levels of fertility in them.
Cow performance
Another key area to look at is cow performance. While higher milk prices this year meant most cows were profitable, this may not be the case next year.
It is important to look closely at your herd and identify cows that may not be performing well enough.
Some question to ask about cow performance:
- Did my cows achieve my milk solids target?
- Am I happy with the cell counts?
- Was there an issue with mastitis or lameness?
- Am I happy with how the calving and breeding season went?
- Are all the cows pulling their weight?
- Am I milk recording and if not, should I be?
Cost in 2023 are set to remain high and milk prices are forecast to decrease by around 15%, according to Teagasc.
So it is important that marginal cows are identified and possibly removed from the herd early in the 2023 lactation.
Areas of focus
Each herd or farm will have different areas that require some improvement in 2023 and beyond.
It is firstly important to identify the area in need of improvement and then to develop a plan to improve or fix this area.
Use any records available to determine what these areas are and then continue to use these record to determine processes in the future.