Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
Don’t skimp on straw in calving boxes and make sure there is plenty of clean straw under newborns once they are in creeps or individual pens, advises Brian Reidy.
- Get your spring grazing, slurry and fertiliser plans in place.
- Get breeding Bulls ready for the breeding season. If you are in doubt, get them fertility tested. Some bulls are sub-fertile but get the odd cow in calf.
- Check stock for lice - many sheds have lice at present despite treating once or even twice earlier in the winter.
- Don’t skimp on straw in calving boxes and make sure there is plenty of clean straw under newborns once they are in creeps or individual pens.
- It is critical to keep calves’ navels as clean as possible to avoid infection. Use Iodine or a disinfectant spray on the navel of calves soon after birth.
- A gradual introduction to grass will benefit the herd in the long run as they can get intakes up over time, while indoor supplementation can maintain performance.
- Begin heat detection with January-calvers.
- Continue to drive dry matter intake by providing quality forage and if silages are below par, extra concentrates will be required.
- Milk price is strong, so optimising milk yield must be the aim on all herds.
- Don’t forget magnesium supplementation for suckler cows with calves if they are at grass.
- Keep plenty of quality feed in front of freshly calved sucklers so that they go back in calf easier.
- Continue to feed dry cows according to their body condition.
- Check that your dry cow mineral is the right one for your farm.
- Retained cleanings are beginning to become a problem.
- Get calves off to the best possible start with a good supply of colostrum.
- Lazy drinkers should be stomach tubed if necessary within the first six hours.
- If you have vaccinated cows, then the full benefit will not be transferred to the calves if sufficient colostrum is not consumed.
- Don’t stock pens too heavily to avoid bullying of fresh cows and injury to young calves.
