Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
Grass is low in dry matter as it recovers and grows rapidly, so monitor intakes and continue to supplement where necessary while building covers.
- Grass is low in dry matter as it recovers and grows rapidly, so monitor intakes and continue to supplement where necessary while building covers.
- Maintain protein supplementation in order to keep up herd performance, as it will encourage high intakes while silage remains in the diet.
- Many will continue to supplement grass intakes with forage as September grass will always be of less power than earlier season grass.
- House fresh calvers by night to optimise dry matter intakes.
- If cows and heifers are in poor condition, begin topping them up in the parlour.
- There is no need for a long dry period for cows or heifers if you build condition in late lactation. In fact, a long dry period can be very detrimental to future animal health and performance. With the current milk price, the last thing you want is a milker dry for longer than she needs and costing you money rather than creating revenue.
- Continue to supplement fresh calved suckler cows at grass with magnesium.
- Nights are beginning to get colder, so tetany will be an issue if not addressed.
- Spring calves to be weaned at or before housing should be on a creep feed.
- Dose, vaccinate and castrate well in advance of weaning to minimise stress.
- Dry sucklers should be on lower-quality swards to reduce total energy intake so they do not get overconditioned.
- Try to give them fibrous straw or hay on bare paddocks and/or follow other stock to tidy up paddocks and thus reduce total energy intake, which will help to avoid gaining too much weight.
