Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
Now is the time to get your straw supply in for the winter, advises Brian Reidy.
- If you can store and handle it, consider purchasing cereals off the combine.
- Concentrates have dropped in price recently; however, locally-sourced cereals can still help greatly to control costs each winter.
- Continue to apply fertiliser post-grazing — growth is struggling but hopefully we will get more rain in the coming week.
- Get your straw supply in for the winter. Both bedding and feeding.
- Continue to monitor stock, especially calves, for parasites.
- Treat as necessary, rather than as a routine.
- Dairy herds that have been dosed for worms recently have seen significant performance improvements.
- If cows are losing milk, you must take action.
- Is dry matter intake after dropping?
- Are you supplying enough protein?
- Are you supplying enough energy?
- Are vaccinations up to date?
- Have you dosed for worms since drying off?
- Pregnancy status in July has little to nothing to do with a yield drop!Â
- Autumn calving is about to begin: Ensure newborn calves get sufficient colostrum within the first vital hours of life.
- Keep dry cows’ condition under control by restricting energy intake while keeping intakes up at the same time.
- Graze after other stock to tidy off paddocks.
- Strip graze paddocks and supplement with fibrous silage, hay, or straw.
- Continue to keep dry cow minerals in front of cows.
- If you usually bolus cows, make sure to do so well in advance of calving to ensure they have sufficient time to address any mineral shortfalls.
- Creep-feeding spring calves will soon commence before weaning — make sure that the concentrate being fed contains good quality ingredients and is mineralised to encourage intake and enhance animal performance.
- Young calves and weanlings on grass are doing very well at present — once they are getting a fresh pick of grass regularly.
- Reports of summer scour syndrome have been seen around the country. Take care that calves have roughage available in the form of hay or straw if they are being moved to young/lush after grass.
- It is always a good idea to assess late calves' performance, and perhaps they will need to be fed additional meal on grass to catch up with older animals.
- Watch that cattle on heavy feeding are not getting digestive upsets.
- Look for loose dung, cud balls, drooling of saliva, or lameness.
- Acidosis is as common on lush soft grass as it is on high-concentrate diets and even more so with a combination of both.
- Cattle to be finished off grass should be fed some meal to achieve a good cover and complement intakes of good-quality grazed grass.
- There has never been a better opportunity to add value to cattle with the current beef prices and value in feed costs.
- Low-protein, high-energy meals are sufficient for this purpose.
