Milk Matters


By Christine Pedersen Senior Dairy Business Consultant The Dairy Group


christine.pedersen@thedairygroup.co.uk www.thedairygroup.co.uk


You can’t manage what you don’t measure! Whilst an old adage, it has never been truer! MCi is our dairy herd costing system that has been web based for 20 years and provides an invaluable planning and monitoring resource for modern dairy businesses. As part of the ongoing MCi update we have recently added two new modules to aid and improve dairy herd management; feed & forage and resource use. A new dashboard to display the key performance indicators “at a glance” has also been added:


alongside common products. Using the RFV calculator will direct the user towards the best value for money feeds, but will not formulate balanced rations, so diet options should be reviewed by a nutrition adviser.


Resource use: The use of resources is becoming even more important and especially in relation to Net Zero. This module includes the simple recording of electricity, fuel and fertiliser use so that the majority of records needed for carbon foot printing are available in one place. The bench marking of these resources indicates how your business compares and where improvements/savings can be made. Whilst water is not directly included in a carbon footprint calculation,


mains water is an expensive resource and leaks are common. Regularly recording water meters helps to identify when leaks occur and provides a benchmark with average use


Feed & forage: This is another year when forage planning is essential as the spring weather has played havoc with grass growth and harvesting and maize establishment. The forage planning module allows the user to calculate the stocks of silage on the farm and then create a plan for the year ahead in terms of what stock to feed, the planned crops to harvest, the anticipated yield and the monthly forage stock balance going forward. The plan would typically be 12 months but can be longer if required. The plan works in tonnes of dry matter due to the great variation is silage dry matter. The plan can be monitored, which would best be done monthly from measured silage stocks on the farm and can be updated after major harvests of grass, wholecrop and maize. Within the Feed & forage module there is also a relative feed value


(RFV) calculator. Feed prices are volatile due to global demand and supply concerns, making it difficult for producers to determine which products offer the best value for money. The RFV calculator allows the user to compare different feeds on the basis of the energy and protein that they supply compared to rapeseed meal and barley, with the aim of using those feeds that have a cost below their relative value. Feed grade urea, rapeseed meal and other protein sources often represent better value than soya and many clients of The Dairy Group feed little or no soya at all. Forages, wet concentrates, dry concentrates, blends and straights can be compared and there is also an option to add custom feeds


PAGE 16 JULY/AUGUST 2021 FEED COMPOUNDER


Post Brexit grant funding: Direct Payments in England (currently known as the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS)) will be phased out from 2021 to 2027. Existing agri-environment schemes (Countryside Stewardship) will also be phased out although Countryside Stewardship agreements, Wildlife Offers and Capital Grant applications will open annually until 2023. Defra is working to deliver various new funding schemes over the next few years including the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). Those who applied to pilot SFI will be invited to apply for the scheme within 8 weeks from the opening date (early July) with the first pilot agreements going live from October 2021. The SFI pilot scheme is based around eight standards or sets of land management actions, each of which has 3 ambition levels. Each standard and ambition level carries a number of actions that are required to receive the payment. This table shows the payment rates for each standard and ambition level for the pilot (published on the Defra website but subject to change):


Standard Arable and


horticultural: land Arable and


horticultural: soils Farm woodland Hedgerows


Improved grassland


Improved grassland: soils


Low and no input grassland


Water body buffering Payment


Introductory Intermediate Advanced £28/ha


£54/ha £26/ha £49/ha


£16/100 m £27/ha £26/ha


£22/ha £16/100m £41/ha -


£21/100m £62/ha £44/ha


£89/ha £29/100m £74/ha £60/ha -


£24/100m £97/ha £70/ha


£110/ha £34/100m


Some standards have additional actions with extra payments, for example for planting trees or sowing cover crops on high-risk land. In some cases, more than one standard can be applied to the same


area of land. For example, the Improved grassland standard, Improved grassland soils standard and Hedgerow standard could be applied to the same area of land. Different ambition levels for each standard can


Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd www.cfegroup.com


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