The weather has finally caught up with us across the country with cold fronts from the north bringing with it the first snowfall of the winter for those on higher ground. Many farms have been holding cattle out for as long as possible this back end to alleviate some of the pressure from reduced fodder stocks in the yard.

However, the turn in the weather will signal the start of a lot of cattle coming indoors and with it the weaning process begins in many cases. Last year we were urging the Focus Farms to get calves off cows as early as possible to maintain cow condition. However, in dry conditions as experienced over the last six or eight weeks, there is not the same strain of cows to maintain condition.

This is due to calves having more grass to feed on, reducing the burden on the cow for milk, as well as the grass available being much drier, meaning cows can physically meet their daily grass intake requirements. When grass is wet in late autumn, cows are unable to take enough in to meet the demand. Therefore they must mobilise body reserves to meet energy requirements. In this case you can see cows losing condition quite quickly.

By weaning calves and drying off cows you almost half the energy requirement of the cow immediately. We are always saying how important it is to carry cow condition into the winter period. It is much easier to supplement a weaned calf that will respond to concentrate feeding at a rate of 4:1, meaning for every 4kg of concentrate fed 1kg of liveweight gain will be achieved, compared to trying to build up cow condition in the run up to calving when the efficiency of converting concentrate to liveweight is much poorer at 7:1.

Weaning is one of the most stressful periods in an animal’s life. With stress, comes a suppressed immune system which opens the door to disease. Anything that can be done to reduce the amount of stress experienced around this period should be considered. Here we look at some of the strategies used across the Focus Farms at weaning time on their farms.

Quiet weans

Andrew Gammie at Drumforber has been using quiet wean nose plates for the last two years with great success. Andrew likes to wean early and return calves to pasture post weaning.

The method he uses is to fit the nose paddles when calves are in for their booster pneumonia vaccine. Cows and calves then return to grass for three to four days. They are then housed for separation. This is mainly to avoid any cows attempting to get back to calves.

Cattle are weighed every time they go through the handling system at Drumforber and so Andrew is able to monitor daily liveweight gain over the weaning period and compare it to pre- and post-weaning growth rates. Last year, two calves managed to lose their nose plates in the first 24 hours of being fitted. It was interesting to see that these two calves also had significantly lower daily liveweight gains during the weaning period compared to the rest of the calves.

Creep feed

Creep feeding is a topic that divides opinion. Some farms wouldn’t be without it, while others don’t see the need for it. In truth the answer lies somewhere in the middle. There is a place for creep feeding calves, especially around weaning time as mentioned to reduce stress on animals.

Where stocking rates are high and grass availability is low, creep feed can also bridge a gap on farm.

Also, in weaned calf systems where you are targeting autumn calf sales there is definitely a place here for creep feeding to maximise the number of kgs sold.

However, creep feeding should not be used to substitute poor grassland management throughout the grazing season. Every farm needs to concentrate its efforts on producing, and using as much grass as possible. Every kg DM of grass costs somewhere between 6-8p/kg DM whereas 1kg of concentrate costs anywhere from 24p/kg DM plus.

While creep feed is being used around weaning time on all of the farms, each of the six are working on improving grazing infrastructure and grassland management to improve grass quality and ultimately live weight gain in growing stock.

The Duguids at Cranna, Aberchirder have been forward creep grazing calves where possible this autumn.

This can be done by placing a creep gate between two fields, or where cattle are grazing paddocks split by an electric wire it can be achieved by simply raising the height of the wire in one area to allow calves to pass under while holding cows back.

At Cranna it was done using a creep gate. In order to encourage the calves to come through into the next field, Arthur fed the calves some concentrate in the creep grazing field.

It took some time for the first few days for the calves to come through and eat, but soon they were in on the act and were spending more and more time in the creep field away from the cows.

Post-weaning diets

Another priority for each of the Focus Farms over the last two years has been to improve silage quality for growing stock. The majority of the farms are store producers and so, cannot afford for growth rate in youngstock to reduce during winter. Focusing on making top-quality silage has reduced the amount of concentrate needed to maintain growth rates resulting in a lower cost per kg gained.

Dry cow diets

This year the Websters at Ardhuncart, Biffens at Arnage and Duguids at Cranna will be using forage crops for at least some of the winter period this year. From completing fodder budgets early in the summer, the extent of fodder shortfalls were established and each of the farms planted forage crops to bridge the gap. The open back end we have experienced has also helped with fodder shortages and most of the farms are just moving onto forage crops now.

The Websters will graze dry cows on kale and stubble turnips that should hold them out for an additional six weeks to two months.

The Biffens will graze some dry cows, as well as all the ewes on swift. The cows should get to the turn of the year outside before being housed in the run up to calving. Similarly the Duguids will take the fittest batch of cows, perhaps up to 50, and graze them on an 18 acre field of swift.

Introducing animals to brassica crops needs to be managed closely and tips to do so are covered in this week’s farm management notes on page 58.