Reducing feed costs by improving forage production

Join us for this webinar with soils and forage specialist Dr George Fisher and Dan Burdett from Cockhaise Farm, which operates as an organic system and is part of our Strategic Dairy Farm Network

Feed costs are a challenge and are particularly high for organic producers. Taking a Lean Management approach and reviewing all assets involved in forage making can help you focus on producing a silage with the right energy and protein content that can form a base on which to optimise bought-in concentrates.

During the event you will hear about:

• Soil health and fertility
• Grass and wholecrop forage quality
• Getting a handle on silage analysis in an organic system

 There will be information and discussion in the session that will be helpful to all milk-producing systems, with the chance to view soils and grass leys at Cockhaise Farm and discuss the system and how it might be improved.

About Cockhaise Farm

A herd of just under 300 Holstein Friesian crosses with some Montebeliarde, Norwegian Red and Jersey genes yielding 6,000 litres. There are 150 replacements, some reared off-farm.

Cockhaise Farm owns 142ha and contract-farms or rents a further 162ha. With just 8–12ha down to arable crops this means this farm is a grass-based unit operating multi-species swards and trying out some 22ha of lucerne and Timothy this year.  

The farm has been organic for 20 years and Dan is now the contractor, owning 90% of the cows on a 50:50 profit share basis. He employs two full-time and one-part time staff.

More about Cockhaise Farm

About Strategic Dairy Farms

Strategic dairy farms aim to help farmers learn from each other through regular on-farm meetings where we will share key performance data and showcase what the best farmers are doing.

They form part of the Optimal Dairy Systems programme which aims to help dairy farmers reduce costs and increase efficiency by focusing on either a tight block or all-year-round calving system.

The growing network of strategic dairy farms have calculated KPIs for their enterprises which are shared at meetings and published online. These are physical and financial performance measures that are critical to success. Farmers can benchmark their businesses against these KPIs to help identify areas for improvement.