Nithsdale Monitor farm, Clonhie 27th July 2017 cid ... · Nithsdale Monitor farm, Clonhie 27th July 2017. cid:[email protected]

Nithsdale Monitor farm, Clonhie27th July 2017

Agenda

• Welcome from Management Group Chairman Colin Forsyth

• Farm update Andrew Marchant

• Grassland update & past performance Rhidian Jones

• Sheep Industry Outlook Iain MacDonald, QMS

• Tour to kale field and cows/calves

• Breeding sheep for the future Dewi Jones, Innovis

• Benchmarking group update Judith Hutchison

• BBQ

• 3.71 hectares (9.16 acres)

• Ploughed

• One pass with discs

• Seed spread mixed with fertiliser

• 2 kg/ac Maris Kestrel kale + 0.4 kg/ac Gowrie turnip

• Fertiliser 325kg/ha 16:16:16 - 52 kg N,P&K/ha (41.6 u/acre)

• Heavy roll

• 19th July 250kg/ha of 27% N CAN -67.5kg N/ha (54 u/acre)

Kale sowing 29th May

Kale

3rd July 24th July

• So far 73 lambs sold av 38.8 kg @ £2.35/kg LW = £91/hd

• 18% creep group have averaged 280g/day (33 of 71 sold-46%)

• 14% creep group have averaged 290g/day (37 of 66 sold- 56%)

• Both groups have eaten 2.1 tonnes of creep to date

• No creep group (3 of 22 sold-13.6%) now mixed with another mob and will be weighed at weaning.

• Entire ram lambs have averaged 290g/day

Lamb sales (early flock)

Cattle

• 24 ha (60 acres) silage made on 6th July

Silage

• Field below “Thistle field” oversown on 7th July

• 11.5 kg/acre of Watsons mix sown with Erth Agri-seeder

• Grazed hard with sheep until seedlings emerged

then sheep removed from the field

Overseeding

• Three groups of sheep on 3-4 fields, moved every 4-7 days

– 220 ewes + 385 lambs on 21.3 ha

– 188 ewes + 242 lambs on 33.3 ha

– 117 ewes + 152 lambs (+ heifers) on 20.8 ha

• Rest of ewes (NCC) at Glengar (not including early lambers)

• Lambs will be weighed at weaning

• Can see fresh grass and flexibility to add/remove fields if required

Sheep rotational grazing

Date of pasture measurement

Average cover on grazing land Kg DM/ha

Stock demandKg DM/ha

Pasture Growth rate in period Kg DM/ha/day

22nd March 1198 14 -

10th April 1283 15 19

2nd May 1206 22 15

23rd May 1416 25 34

12th June 1714 30 43*

3rd July 2007 32 45

24th July 1968 27 28

Grass monitoring update (Clonhie)

* On 12th June silage fields averaged 83kgDM/ha/day since previous reading

• Kale 3.71 ha

– Assuming 8tDM/ha + 80% utilisation should give feed for 400 ewes for 60 days or 260 ewes for 90 days (1kgDM/hd/day)

• Grass wintering 26.4 ha – Assuming 1250 kgDM/ha available (2 days shifts) this will feed 440

ewes for 60 days or 290 ewes for 90 days (1.25kgDM/hd/day)

– Will graze these fields off with dry sheep until late August to get high quality regrowth then measure yield to determine available DM. 100 days @15kgDM/ha/day will give 1250-1500 kgDM/ha available grass

• Glengar for remainder of ewes not on kale/grass wintering

• May be a 30 day period when sheep will need sacrificial area before set stocking on lambing fields- or eke wintering for longer by feeding silage/concentrates earlier?

Sheep wintering plans

Kale 3.7 ha

Grass wintering 7.7 ha

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 Target

Gross Output* 100 100 100 100

Variable costs 21 18 21 20-30

Gross Margin 79 82 79 70-80

Power & Mach 28 36 28 15-18

Property & misc 8 8 8 8-12

Finance/rent 29 33 27 <15

Net Profit 14 5 16 >15

Gross Output Analysis

* No SFP was received in these years

2014 lambing

QMS av2014

2015 lambing

QMS av2015

2016 (draft)

Ewes & hoggslambed

490 + 105 550 + 145 740 +100

Output 65.18 97.97 59.62 91.09 76.38

Variable costs

Feed 7.28 15.64 14.21 13.13 10.97

Vet & med 6.36 8.21 8.02 8.97 6.16

Miscellaneous 2.90 9.56 3.67 9.64 7.09

Forage 4.61 7.16 1.12 8.19 2.34

Total VC 21.15 40.58 27.02 39.84 26.56

Gross Margin 44.03 57.39 32.60 51.16 49.82

Sheep Gross Margin £/ewe

Measure Result Comment

Effective ha 122 Adjusted for rushes, margins etc

Stocking rate LU/effective ha 1.25 1.02/actual hectare

Sheep % 60.5

Cattle % 39.5 Mostly summer grazers and wintering cattle

Utilised KgDM/effective ha 4,953 Based on stock requirements, purchased feed and estimated grass utilisation of 60%

Utilised ME GJ/effective ha 52 Can be compared to similar farms and various Nitrogen levels

Gross Margin/effective ha £ 314.30 Starting point. Will already be higher for 2016 & 2017

Farm efficiency measures, Clonhie2015-16

The end