The autumn herd finished calving on the first week of October. I calved down 21 cows over 10 weeks and I have 22 live calves on the ground, so I am delighted with how the herd performed. The good grazing conditions this autumn have been a great help in keeping calf mortality down.

Cows were very quick to come back into heat again, so I let the stock bull out earlier than planned. Cows went to the bull in mid-October, rather than early November.

They have since been housed and as they are easier to manage when they are indoors, I have used some AI as well as using my Charolais stock bull.

I am selecting the AI sire to suit the cow. Maternal cows are getting a terminal sire and vice versa. Autumn cows have been housed in great condition and are getting ad-lib silage only. They were fed baled second cut until the pit was opened and it had an analysis of 70DMD and 12.8% protein. The pit silage is 68 DMD but protein is low at 9%.

I cannot understand why the protein is so low given that the second cut was made on the same ground and the grass was re-seeded.

I took a sample of the crop before cutting and it was at an ideal stage for harvesting. I am going to take another sample and retest the silage once we move back further into the first cut.

While the autumn cows are on a silage only diet, their calves are getting 1kg of ration daily. I feel if the cows are in fleshy condition the meal is better utilised going straight to the calf.

The spring weanlings are also housed and eating ad-lib silage and 2kg of ration a day. They were weighed back in October and weights ranged from 270kg to 370kg. I have 34 spring calving cows on a diet of restricted silage, straw and pre-calving minerals. They are due to start calving in early January.