Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
Many farms will be drying off the whole herd soon.
- Have you tested your silage yet?
- There are huge variations in silages again this year. Early first cuts are excellent. Late first cuts are poor. Most second cuts are too dry and spoil easily. Third cuts looked nice when cut, but are generally testing and feeding poorly.
- Ash content is becoming more and more of a problem from year to year in Irish grass silages. This is coming from soil and slurry contamination. Field practice by both farmer and contractor needs to be seriously assessed if this issue is to be rectified.
- Most stock are in long enough for lice to start becoming an issue. Watch closely for signs of scratching and irritation. Keep up to date with vaccination programmes.
- Many farms will be drying off the whole herd soon. Dry off cows fast, rather than milking once per day for a week. Plenty of straw for 24 hours before and two/three days post dry-off does a very effective job of soaking up cows.
- Choose a good-quality dry cow mineral spec. The difference between a cheap and higher-priced pre-calver mineral per tonne could be tiny when you calculate its cost per cow. Most cows only consume one/third of a bag of minerals in the dry period.
- For cows milking through, increase the protein content of the meal being fed to 20/22% to balance grass silage, as most are only 11/12% protein this year.
- Group dry cows according to calving date at housing and feed accordingly with pre-calver mineral.
- Consider protein supplementation in the two/three weeks pre-calving to boost colostrum quality and quantity.
- Don’t stock pens too heavily to avoid bullying of fresh cows and injury to calves.
- Maintain good heat detection records for autumn calvers. Sucklers can be difficult to see in heat indoors, especially when on slats, so the use of heat detection aids will be a big help.
- Aim to supply sufficient protein to growing cattle by balancing silage with an appropriate concentrate.
- Silages tend to be low in protein this year, so feed accordingly.
- Protein is essential in younger animals as it firstly encourages intakes of feed, which in turn increases total energy intake to improve weight gain. The protein will help to encourage frame growth, and this will mean that stock grow properly before being finished or served.
- Energy drives weight gain and fat cover.
- High-energy meal will speed up finish, but if silage quality is poor, then increased volumes of meal will be necessary to get cattle to slaughter at your target date.
