We are calving cows thick and fast at the minute, with 15 animals calved within six days last week.
The first calf was born on 12 March and as of last weekend, we had 30 animals calved, which breaks down to 22 cows and eight heifers.
Like many people, I am working from home due to the current circumstances
Thankfully, the weather has turned in our favour and we have managed to slip cows out to grass after calving.
With the coronavirus situation, we are keeping a safe distance from the outside world as much as possible, so that we are fit and able to calve cows.
Like many people, I am working from home due to the current circumstances. This suits me well, as I can keep a closer eye on cows as they calve and step in to assist when required.
New stock bulls
We have traditionally used Limousin sires on our cows, which are predominantly Limousin-bred. But to introduce hybrid vigour into the herd, we have started using other breeds in the past couple of years.
Most of the cows that have calved this spring were served to an Angus stock bull last summer. The replacement heifers are calving down to a Stabiliser bull.
Spring calving started on 12 March with cows calving to Angus, Stabiliser and Limousin stock bulls.
The Angus bull has good maternal and terminal traits, so the aim is to try and keep future herd replacements from him. We also ran a Limousin stock bull with the later calving cows and the animals we felt were not ideal to keep breeding heifers from.
Progress
Calving has gone reasonably well so far. We worked hard over winter to take excess condition off cows, so that animals are in a much fitter state to calve down.
This has cut down a lot of the problems we experienced in previous years, with fewer interventions required.
One calf was born dead, while the second calf was born ahead of its time
We did lose two calves. One calf was born dead, while the second calf was born ahead of its time. It lived for a few days, but had problems with feeding. We have since managed to foster calves on to these cows.
Tighter calving
As of last weekend, we still have another 45 cows to calve. Going by our scanning records, we should be finished calving by the second week of May.
As we finish our male calves as young bulls, taking one month off the calving period will significantly increase housing weights this year
This will see spring-calving finishing one month ahead of last year. Two years ago, calving ran into July, but this was the result of an infertile stock bull.
As we finish our male calves as young bulls, taking one month off the calving period will significantly increase housing weights this year.
This should mean we can get bulls finished earlier next spring, with less purchased concentrate required during the intensive feeding period.
Grazing season
underway for cows
We started slipping cows out to grass on Monday 23 March and this has been a big time saver in terms of the day-to-day workload.
Cows are grazing on paddocks that were closed up in October, so there is plenty of good-quality grass.
As such, these cows are not being supplemented with concentrates. However, they are being offered magnesium through lick buckets to reduce the risk of grass tetany.
The cows are split in two equal-sized groups at grass. Once calving is finished, the plan is to pull cows in and sort out into breeding groups.
Breeding groups
As the earlier-calving cows will be the most fertile animals in the herd, they will be grouped together to try and get replacements from them.
We will also put the best milking cows in this group. We bought a new Simmental stock bull in February from one of the other programme farmers, and this new sire will serve this group.
Our Stabiliser bull has been sold, so this year’s replacement heifers will be served to the Angus stock bull
The cows less suited to producing replacements will run with our Limousin stock bull.
Our Stabiliser bull has been sold, so this year’s replacement heifers will be served to the Angus stock bull.
We have a selection of Simmental-cross Limousin heifers to choose replacements from this year and they should make good cows.
Slurry
Grazing ground has not received any slurry or fertiliser yet, as grass covers needed to be grazed off first. However, paddocks did get slurry last October, just before they were closed up.
Silage ground did get slurry this month. For the first time on-farm, we applied the slurry using a pipeline and dribble bar.
As we have a good land parcel surrounding the yard, the pipeline is definitely a much more time and cost effective way to spread slurry compared to a tanker.
The contractor was finished in two hours and we saved £300 in spreading costs compared to last year. We have booked the contractor again for this week to put more slurry out.
Fertiliser
We bought nitrogen last week for grazing and silage ground. The plan is to go with 24:6:12 and 25:5:5 on silage ground, depending on soil analysis.
Silage fertiliser will be applied next week, weather depending. Fields will then be closed with a target of harvesting high-quality swards in mid to late May.
We have agreed with a neighbouring farmer to buy silage as a standing crop
Around 55ac will be closed off for first-cut, with 35ac closed up for second-cut. Surplus grass will be taken from paddocks to boost fodder reserves.
However, we have agreed with a neighbouring farmer to buy silage as a standing crop, as we have limited ground that can be harvested due to the increase in cow numbers.
We have already bought a few loads of silage from the same farm in recent weeks. We still have silage in the pit, but reserves are getting low. Buying in a few loads now will stretch out fodder until all cattle can go back to grass.
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We are calving cows thick and fast at the minute, with 15 animals calved within six days last week.
The first calf was born on 12 March and as of last weekend, we had 30 animals calved, which breaks down to 22 cows and eight heifers.
Like many people, I am working from home due to the current circumstances
Thankfully, the weather has turned in our favour and we have managed to slip cows out to grass after calving.
With the coronavirus situation, we are keeping a safe distance from the outside world as much as possible, so that we are fit and able to calve cows.
Like many people, I am working from home due to the current circumstances. This suits me well, as I can keep a closer eye on cows as they calve and step in to assist when required.
New stock bulls
We have traditionally used Limousin sires on our cows, which are predominantly Limousin-bred. But to introduce hybrid vigour into the herd, we have started using other breeds in the past couple of years.
Most of the cows that have calved this spring were served to an Angus stock bull last summer. The replacement heifers are calving down to a Stabiliser bull.
Spring calving started on 12 March with cows calving to Angus, Stabiliser and Limousin stock bulls.
The Angus bull has good maternal and terminal traits, so the aim is to try and keep future herd replacements from him. We also ran a Limousin stock bull with the later calving cows and the animals we felt were not ideal to keep breeding heifers from.
Progress
Calving has gone reasonably well so far. We worked hard over winter to take excess condition off cows, so that animals are in a much fitter state to calve down.
This has cut down a lot of the problems we experienced in previous years, with fewer interventions required.
One calf was born dead, while the second calf was born ahead of its time
We did lose two calves. One calf was born dead, while the second calf was born ahead of its time. It lived for a few days, but had problems with feeding. We have since managed to foster calves on to these cows.
Tighter calving
As of last weekend, we still have another 45 cows to calve. Going by our scanning records, we should be finished calving by the second week of May.
As we finish our male calves as young bulls, taking one month off the calving period will significantly increase housing weights this year
This will see spring-calving finishing one month ahead of last year. Two years ago, calving ran into July, but this was the result of an infertile stock bull.
As we finish our male calves as young bulls, taking one month off the calving period will significantly increase housing weights this year.
This should mean we can get bulls finished earlier next spring, with less purchased concentrate required during the intensive feeding period.
Grazing season
underway for cows
We started slipping cows out to grass on Monday 23 March and this has been a big time saver in terms of the day-to-day workload.
Cows are grazing on paddocks that were closed up in October, so there is plenty of good-quality grass.
As such, these cows are not being supplemented with concentrates. However, they are being offered magnesium through lick buckets to reduce the risk of grass tetany.
The cows are split in two equal-sized groups at grass. Once calving is finished, the plan is to pull cows in and sort out into breeding groups.
Breeding groups
As the earlier-calving cows will be the most fertile animals in the herd, they will be grouped together to try and get replacements from them.
We will also put the best milking cows in this group. We bought a new Simmental stock bull in February from one of the other programme farmers, and this new sire will serve this group.
Our Stabiliser bull has been sold, so this year’s replacement heifers will be served to the Angus stock bull
The cows less suited to producing replacements will run with our Limousin stock bull.
Our Stabiliser bull has been sold, so this year’s replacement heifers will be served to the Angus stock bull.
We have a selection of Simmental-cross Limousin heifers to choose replacements from this year and they should make good cows.
Slurry
Grazing ground has not received any slurry or fertiliser yet, as grass covers needed to be grazed off first. However, paddocks did get slurry last October, just before they were closed up.
Silage ground did get slurry this month. For the first time on-farm, we applied the slurry using a pipeline and dribble bar.
As we have a good land parcel surrounding the yard, the pipeline is definitely a much more time and cost effective way to spread slurry compared to a tanker.
The contractor was finished in two hours and we saved £300 in spreading costs compared to last year. We have booked the contractor again for this week to put more slurry out.
Fertiliser
We bought nitrogen last week for grazing and silage ground. The plan is to go with 24:6:12 and 25:5:5 on silage ground, depending on soil analysis.
Silage fertiliser will be applied next week, weather depending. Fields will then be closed with a target of harvesting high-quality swards in mid to late May.
We have agreed with a neighbouring farmer to buy silage as a standing crop
Around 55ac will be closed off for first-cut, with 35ac closed up for second-cut. Surplus grass will be taken from paddocks to boost fodder reserves.
However, we have agreed with a neighbouring farmer to buy silage as a standing crop, as we have limited ground that can be harvested due to the increase in cow numbers.
We have already bought a few loads of silage from the same farm in recent weeks. We still have silage in the pit, but reserves are getting low. Buying in a few loads now will stretch out fodder until all cattle can go back to grass.
Read more
Suckler farming on the edge
Coronavirus: farmers urged to prepare a plan B in case they fall sick
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