Beef: It’s September, so bank grass now to extend grazing season
Start banking grass to extend the grazing season later in the year. Get any third-cut or bales made, so you will be able to bring after-grass into the rotation sooner. Grass will need a longer wilt at this time of year, if it is being baled.
Spring-born suckler calves will be weaned over the coming weeks and months. Weanling sales have just started, and good weaning practices will optimise the price you get.
Buyers know which animals have been weaned and can spot those who have just come out from under the calf. The suckler welfare scheme made it compulsory to feed creep to calves pre and post-weaning. Even though the scheme has been replaced, it is still good practice to feed creep around weaning. It reduces stress on the calf and reduces their dependency on their mother’s milk.
This makes it easier for the suckler cow to dry off without complications. The creep feed should include good quality ingredients, be palatable, and include minerals.
When weaning calves, stress reduction must be a priority. Stressed weanlings are more prone to illness. Any dosing, vaccinations, castrating, etc, should be done in advance of weaning. Once weaned, the calves should remain on creep feed for at least two weeks. Some will wean calves and leave them in an adjoining paddock.
Others will put cows indoors on straw, and send the weanlings as far away as possible, so that they won’t hear them bawling at night! Reducing stress will help to achieve optimum animal performance and reduce illness.
Many farmers use an electric fence wire in the corner of a paddock as their creep area.
The fence is high enough for calves to go under and the meal is fed in an open trough. You can regulate the amount of meal consumed daily by the weanlings, as they can all eat at the same time. You can also be sure that all weanlings are getting some meal. It is important the calves eat the meal quickly, so it doesn’t attract birds, who can be a source of disease. You will need plenty of current in the fence, as suckler cows can be flighty.
Some will also practice forward-creeping of grass and you can also feed-creep meal to calves in open troughs in the forward paddock. This requires either a forward creep gate or lifting of the electric fence, so that calves can move forward while cows remain in the previous paddock.
Plenty of straw for four days after weaning is ample to dry off suckler cows. If you have issues on your farm with mastitis, consider tubing cows. Once dry and settled, dry sucklers can be allowed to follow other stock to clean out paddocks. Remember that most sucklers at drying-off have plenty of condition and don’t need to put any more on. Leave them work a bit harder for their feed for a period of time.
