The 2019/2020 calving season is under way, with three cows calved in the last week.

The first of my Saler heifers calved a Hamilcar LM heifer calf. With a calving difficulty of 2.4%, the calf thankfully popped out unaided, hopefully a sign of what’s to come.

It’s small but lively, so I can’t ask for much more than that. Two mature cows calved a Whitecliff James bull and a set of Whitecliff James twin heifers. The bull was also unaided, but the second twin heifer needed a bit of help as it was coming backwards.

New-born calves can be lazy inside, spending most of their time lying in the corner of the pen, only getting up to suck. But a couple of hours outside and they’re skipping about the place.

I managed to get the first two calved back to grass. I find it has great health benefits for the calf if they can get a couple of weeks over them outside before being housed for the winter, but ground conditions aren’t great, so how long I’ll get to keep them out or if I’ll manage to get any more out remains to be seen.

Being able to let cows out a couple of days after they calf also frees up space in the calving pens and cuts down on disease pressure. It’s amazing how nature takes over, new-born calves can be lazy inside, spending most of their time lying in the corner of the pen, only getting up to suck. But a couple of hours outside and they’re skipping about the place.

Bulls housed

I housed 11 of my heaviest bulls 11 days ago, a little earlier than normal as they were in a paddock beside the yard and were starting to damage the ground. Outside they were getting about 4.5kg of meal. This will be built up gradually to around 10kg now and to be honest they’re just easier to feed in the shed. They are fed twice a day and get my best first cut silage.

I was very pleasantly surprised by their performance since the last weighing. Over a 29-day period the worst performing calf gained 1.21kg/day while the best performing hit 2.31kg/day and the average for the batch was 1.65kg/day. They’ll probably stall for a while now that they’ve been housed but still, I’m very happy with that average.

Ewes

Once again, I’m technically a sheep farmer, thanks to the purchase of 31 store lambs. I dipped my toe in the water last year for the first time since 2005 and they did well, so I’ve decided to do it again. I’m sure all the full-time sheep farmers out there would disagree, buts it’s nice to have something different about the place, as the saying goes "a change is as good as a rest!"

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