The next few weeks can often be busy, so you need to put a plan in place to get all the pre-calving jobs done.

Priority should be given to calf sheds and calving sheds. There is a move away from individual pens towards larger group pens where cows can calve unassisted.

A handling pen should be in the shed so a cow with a hard calving can be accommodated. Look at the facilities you have on the farm and ask can any be converted to a low-cost calving shed, if even just for the first six weeks of calving.

The other thing is that if you want more cows to calve during the day then you should start feeding cows at night.

Teagasc studies have found that when cows are fed at night, the number of cows that calve from 12.30am to 6.30am drops from 24% to 15%.

Some farmers will put up an electric reel to keep cows back from silage during the day.

Where it is not practical to do so or where feed space is limited, consider just putting heifers or cows that are in-calf to beef bulls on the night-time feeding regime.

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