Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist

Your weekly reminder of the things that should be at the top of your farm to-do list. Published every Monday on the Irish Examiner digital Farming hub.
Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist

Protein and energy are low in the very dry grass being fed, which will depress animal performance.

Monday, September 2 - Sunday, September 8

All Stock

  • Get your silage tested so your nutritionist can help you achieve animal performance targets this winter.
  • This will also help you establish the tonnes of dry matter you currently have in stock, making your feed budget projections even more accurate.
  • If you are short of feed, do something about it NOW. Cereals are still available for whole cropping, and maize is still five to six weeks away from harvest.
  • Monitor all stock for parasites; they are a bigger issue than you think and are being ignored/dismissed to the detriment of animal performance at present.

Dairy

  • Days are getting shorter, fibre content is lower, and as a result, dry matter consumed from grass is dropping and being underutilised.
  • Grass dry matters are currently around 20% due to low growth rates, but if we get a growth spurt in combination with shorter days, dry matters will drop, and intakes will be harder to achieve.
  • Introduce some quality fibre as a buffer to complement autumn grass. It will help improve the cows' digestive efficiency and make sure that more of the energy and protein consumed by the cows is available to the rumen microbes to boost production.

Sucklers

  • Suckled cows at grass must continue to be supplemented with Magnesium. This applies to fresh cows and those about to be dried off.
  • Autumn calves should have grass intakes restricted pre-calving to help avoid calving difficulties. Keep supplementing with pre-calving minerals.
  • Were these housed pre-calving, some supplementary protein will help improve colostrum quality and quantity.

Growing weanlings & Store cattle

  • Young calves and weanlings on grass may not be thriving well unless they are being fed meal, or are getting a fresh pick of grass at least every three to four days.
  • Protein and energy are low in the very dry grass being fed, which will depress animal performance.
  • Late calves will need to be fed meal on grass to catch up with older animals.
  • Dairy replacements should get concentrates every day of their first season grazing. It is the cheapest meal you will ever feed these heifers.

Finishers

  • Cattle to be killed off grass from now on will need some additional energy to get the final cover on them, as the grass has gone soft and very high in protein. Barley, maize meal and oats will do a great job here.

Compiled by Brian Reidy, an independent ruminant nutritionist at Premier Farm Nutrition.

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