{"id":15,"date":"2012-04-01T10:26:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T10:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grasslands.kormak.co.uk\/blog\/?p=15"},"modified":"2017-05-25T09:38:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T09:38:32","slug":"management-system-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/management-system-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Management System Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Today, myself and Grasslands hosted an event at Clive Hall Farm to discuss the management system used on their units. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Fourteen farmers attended the event and some good discussion and debate was held specifically around the topic of grassland management, one of the key ingredients to the extensive grazing systems operated across all Grasslands farms.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Geoff Booth, Operations Director for Grasslands joined me to take the attendees on a farm walk. We discussed the performance of the herd and shared the challenging objectives that we have set ourselves for this unit for 2011. These targets all focus around increasing the margin per litre due to the lean management principles that are being implemented across many aspects of the farming operations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The 2011 objectives for Clive Hall Farm are as follows:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>To lift pre grazing height in order to grow more grass and increase the length of the grazing round<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>To replace 100 tonnes DM shortfall (due to current drought) as economically as possible<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>To rear calves on site up to a weaning weight of 90 kg<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Replacement animal to arrive first week of January<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>45% heifers reared (v 55% bull calves)<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Empty rate 9% at 10 weeks increased from 9% at 12 weeks last year <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Cull rate of 16% <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Milk yield; 5,600 litres (increase of 400 litres from previous year)<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Grass production; 13.25 tons DM\/ha<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>Grass grazed; 11.5 tons DM\/ha<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>500 kg wheat feed\/dairy concentrates\/cow<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>4 pence \/litre labour charge<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">I concluded the meeting explaining that:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2018<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">In order to meet our 2011 targets and challenges it is important to maintain the high standards we have already set at Clive Hall. We need to achieve the \u2018empty rate\u2019 target to enable us to cull the lower achieving cows\u2019. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2018<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">If this objective is met, 5% of the lowest achieving cows will be replaced therefore helping us to meet the increased milk yield target\u2019. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">My final point for the evening was that:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2018<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Although we are on target for grass growth, by looking closer at nutrient management planning and our reseeding policy, this will help reduce the annual forage shortfall\u2019.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, myself and Grasslands hosted an event at Clive Hall Farm to discuss the management system used on their units. Fourteen farmers attended the event and some good discussion and debate was held specifically around the topic of grassland management, one of the key ingredients to the extensive grazing systems operated across all Grasslands farms. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}