Project update (November 2019) - Cefnllan: Managing the change; sucklers to dairy beef

Dafydd Jones, Senior Livestock Systems Consultant with Precision Grazing is leading on the project work at Cefnllan.  Dafydd Jones visited Cefnllan in November, 2019 to set up Agrinet (grass management software) and Farmax (decision support software); both softwares will play key roles in assisting with important on-farm management decisions for the duration of the project.  In addition to this, a baseline assessment of the farm and enterprise was carried out by Dafydd Jones and added to Farmax.  A map of Cefn Llan was created through Farmax, and a walking route to measure the farm grass cover was also created.  The whole farm grass cover was measured by plate meter, as well as calculating how much brassica crops (turnips) and silage was available on farm to get a true value of available feed for the winter, for a winter budget to be calculated.  Please see information below;

Video 1 – Farmax

Video 2 - AgriNet

Figure 1. shows a map of Cefnllan, with the fields numbered to correlate with table 1.

Figure 2. shows an aerial map of Garth Farm, which is a nearby block of land which is rented by Neil Davies, and is farmed as one block with Cefnllan.  Again, the fields are all numbered to correlate with table 1.

Table 1. shows a breakdown of all fields at Cefnllan and Garth, their effective hectares as well as their 2019 and 2020 use.

Feed budgeting

Table 2. shows the calculated amount of silage available at Cefnllan in November, 2019

Table 3. shows the calculated dry matter yield of the brassica crops (turnips) at Cefnllan in November, 2019

The images below show Dafydd and Neil measuring the dry matter (DM) yield of the brassica crops at Cefnllan in November 2019. Assessment was done by using a 1m square frame, an empty bucket and weigh scales at four different fields.