Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
With the recent mild weather, many calves are coughing - monitor this carefully as you may need to treat the group.
- Many cattle are sweating indoors with the current mild spell- consider clipping a strip of hair along their backs. This is a very effective way of reducing stress on stock.
- Open doors etc where possible to improve ventilation in sheds.
- Lice are also a significant problem in dairy and beef yards.
- Many herds will have the whole herd dry by now. Anything yet to be dried off should be dried over a short period, rather than milking once per day for a week.
- Choose a good-quality dry cow mineral spec in preparation for calving.
- 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.
- Group dry cows according to Calving date once dry and manage accordingly.
- This includes pre-calving minerals and maybe some concentrate, along with the relevant pre-calving vaccination for scour if being done. (Applies to sucklers and dairy cows).
- With the recent mild weather, many calves are coughing - monitor this carefully as you may need to treat the group.
- Autumn calves should be creep fed where possible at this stage. This will make it a little easier to get their mothers back in calf.
- Try to ensure you are supplying sufficient protein to growing cattle.
- Silages are 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 before being served.
