Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
Sucklers with calves at foot should be a priority for grass allocation.
- It looks like the weather will remain fairly dry for a while yet, so it is essential you lengthen your grazing rotation to ensure you keep grass ahead of stock.
- Topping of paddocks that were not grazed out properly will be essential to produce quality swards for the coming rotations if we get some rain. Don’t mow too tightly as it could stunt growth further.
- In advance of any rain, it is essential you keep fertiliser application up to date to take full advantage of the growth that moisture will bring. Soil temperatures are currently between 15.4 and 18.9 degrees, which is above average for this time of year, but with no moisture to take advantage of it.
- Try to prioritise the best quality grass for the most productive stock on the farm.
- You must keep yields up as there is a long year ahead. Supplement hard to maintain milk and fertility performance.
- If you have a milk urea result, be guided by that from a protein supplementation point of view.
- Sucklers with calves at foot should be a priority for grass allocation.
- Continue to supplement suckled cows at grass with magnesium to prevent tetany — bucket licks or add to water — tetany is very common at the moment.
- Consider introducing creep meal to reduce grass demand and take some pressure off cows where grass is running out.
