Weather

The weather forecast is mixed enough for the next couple of days, which will make it difficult to get field work done. That said, ground conditions are surprisingly good on free-draining soils. This is giving farmers a chance to get milkers out, and spread slurry and fertiliser. The target is to get 30-40% of the farm grazed in February. To achieve this you need to be out grazing these days, if only for a few hours each morning and evening. On/off grazing works well and cows adjust quickly. Average soil temperatures over the past seven days are between 3-6°C. This doesn’t mean it’s too cold to spread urea. If ground conditions are good and there is no real heavy rain forecast (more than 15mm) then it is safe to spread urea, even if soil temperatures are low. Spreading when soil temperatures are low just means that the response will be delayed, but nitrogen will not be lost. Speaking of fertiliser, I was talking to a few fertiliser reps during the week and they said that the majority of fertiliser spreaders are not set up correctly, leading to poor spreading patterns. On some spreaders, the veins need to be changed when spreading urea. Get as much field work done now as possible, as the next few weeks will be busier, with more cows to milk and calves to feed. See pages 30 and 31 for more spring management advice.

Vaccines

While it is still only February, farmers should now be ordering in their vaccine requirements for spring. It seems that vaccines are getting scarcer every year, as production is failing to keep up with the pace of demand. With one of the main BVD vaccines no longer being manufactured, demand for BVD vaccines will be higher this year, so the advice is to order early. Whether or not a booster vaccine (two shots) will be required if moving to a new vaccine will depend on veterinary advice. I know some vets say it shouldn’t be required. Whether or not to continue with the BVD vaccine at all is another question. It largely depends on your herd’s risk of exposure to a PI animal. Where a PI animal comes in contact with a naïve herd (no exposure), the effects of BVD could be worse than in a vaccinated herd. That’s the risk, but for many farmers that have never had a PI calf and have good biosecurity measures in place it could be considered. The leptospirosis vaccine should be given after calving and before breeding.

Meal

Many farmers will be ordering their first loads of meal this week. What to buy depends largely on how much grass the milkers are going to get. On farms where cows can go to grass early, the specification of meal is less important as spring grass is high in energy and protein. A simple three-way mix of something like barley, soya hulls and distillers grains would be ideal.

On herds that are likely to be housed on silage for the next month or so, a higher-spec meal will be necessary to balance the low protein and energy levels in silage. In such cases, meal with protein levels up to 20% are needed. But even feeding this meal at 5kg or 6kg/head/day will be insufficient to meet dietary needs.