Actions to improve milk protein percentage in May and June
John McCabe, Teagasc/Aurivo Joint Programme Advisor, looks at the factors affecting and the steps to take to improve milk protein percentage in May and June.
Figure 1 below from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicates a few different things to us. Firstly, milk protein percentage flat lines for the summer months (red circle). Secondly, milk protein percentage takes a dip in March (black box). And finally, milk protein percentage has increased over the last decade.
Figure 1: Monthly milk protein % delivered from 2010-2020
There are many herds that don’t dip below 3.4% in March and gain protein percentage in May, June and July, which is worth good money to them. Protein is also a good indicator of energy status, so we can assume litres would be better if protein is better; this is worth more again. Most of the good decisions these herds make that avoid them being ‘average’ happen in May and June.
What decisions are they?
Mow your paddocks
Protein (%) delivered to the co-ops stays static for the summer months on average. To improve this, start correcting grass swards as a matter of urgency. Seed head has appeared and needs to be dealt with. Mow out surplus grass.I spend a lot of my time with groups of farmers looking at the grass on offer to dairy cows. I can confirm that a lot of the time the cover is too high. This leads to poor graze outs and stemmy grass, which is the recipe for that red circle in Figure 1.
When you have the surpluses baled, you may need to pre-mow the odd one or top the odd one over the next few weeks. You are not a bad farmer if you do. But the first approach should always be to bale heavy covers. As some ground was tramped in late April and early May, you might need to start correcting swards in a more urgent manner, which would involve these less than ideal methods.
On a side note, meal costs around 45c/kg of dry matter, which – if we think about that statement in itself – is astronomical. The difference between feeding 5kg and 3kg of meal or 4kg and 2kg of meal is around €0.90-1. If you are worried about the tank dropping in the region of one litre for a kilogram of meal you pull out, then your cows were not getting enough or the right quality grass or both. It is actually a bad sign if you are getting a response to 5kg. The milk price is under pressure and people got away with this last year but won’t this year.