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The last chance to teat-seal in-calf heifers is this week. Ideally, they should be done four to six weeks before calving. There are mixed views on the practice, but most farmers I speak to who do it are happy with it. It does help to prevent clinical mastitis and high SCC where there are environmental challenges for mastitis, such as housing on slats, wood chip pads, etc. The big drawback with teat-sealing heifers is that you’re introducing a foreign object into the teat canal and bringing the risk of infection with it. Therefore, hygiene needs to be second to none – otherwise you’ll be doing more harm than good.
Sticking with heifers, are the weanlings weighed, separated and fed according to size? As soon as cows start calving, these animals will be put to the back of your minds, so take the time to manage them properly now. Those above target weight do not need to get any meal this winter. They will gain about 0.4kg liveweight per day on silage alone. Heifers that are on target weight do not need meal if silage quality is good and they are expected to hit grass in early spring. If silage quality is not good or their turnout is going to be late spring, then they will probably need 1kg of meal per day to keep them tipping along at 0.5kg liveweight gain per day. Heifers that are underweight will need 2kg to 3kg of meal along with good silage. Heifers should be 47% of their mature liveweight now.
Are all animals up to date on their dosing regime? The key thing here is fluke, as if a fluke dose that only treats adult fluke was used at housing, a second dose may be required now. Other potential issues include lice treatment (check for signs of lice in housed cattle such as excessive scratching or loss of hair). Farmers who vaccinate for rotavirus scour should be giving the vaccine over the coming weeks. It should be given to the cows between three and 12 weeks before calving.
The key thing with this vaccine is that for the calf to get the antibodies, it must get sufficient colostrum and transition milk. By right, this transition milk needs to continue for the first three to four weeks of life, so farmers who plan to feed milk replacer early (such as part of a Johne’s disease control programme) need to be aware of this.
While most of the antibodies will be transferred in the colostrum, they won’t be getting full coverage if the calves aren’t on whole milk. Best policy is to speak to your vet and decide which is a greater risk to protect against – rotavirus or Johne’s. Of course, many farmers switch to milk replacer from a labour perspective, so that should be taken into account also.
All discussion groups should be putting their costs for 2019 together for analysis. The costs meeting should take place in January, as everyone will be too busy in February. It’s an important meeting to have, as it puts perspective on the ordinary monthly meetings. Everyone benefits from benchmarking each other on costs and output.
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