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Last Thursday all cows got their annual mineral bolus and their salmonella vaccine. Any cows that were not scanned in calf in the spring were also scanned.
Thankfully, all but one were in calf but I was disappointed that the one that scanned empty was a nice AI-bred Salers that should have been carrying her second calf. My scanner said she had a cyst on her ovary which he burst but at this stage she is no good to me and will be culled.
It is unfortunate because she has great genetics and a €uro-Star rating of €183. Doing these jobs really brings home the fact that the summer is over and the beginning of the calving season is fast approaching. It is normally November before I get started properly but there are usually a few calved before the end of October.
Vaccination programme
I have a simple vaccination programme that I’ve developed to suit myself over the past number of years. Two months before the start of calving all cows and maiden heifers receive two mineral boluses containing copper, cobalt, selenium and iodine. They also receive a salmonella vaccine.
Two weeks later all cows that will be calving inside in following three months receive their Rotavec corona vaccine for scour. A fortnight later again the maiden heifers receive their second salmonella vaccine and finally four weeks after this any cows that didn’t receive their scour vaccine will then receive it.
It is a simple way of making sure that everything gets what it is supposed to get and when it is supposed to get it.
Slurry
The next job on the agenda is to empty the tanks of whatever small amount of slurry is in them. Unfortunately land is too wet to travel with a tanker at the moment but hopefully there will some window of opportunity over the next few weeks.
Even if land was dry enough there is almost too much grass on most of my fields to allow me to spread - not a bad complaint, I suppose.
The panic is now on to get sheds and calving pens washed and disinfected for the start of the winter. Every year I tell myself “I will get it done in good time this year”, and nearly every year I’m running on the last legs.
Housing
If weather conditions were reasonable I should have plenty of time, but the way things are going at the minute cows could be housed sooner than I’d like. I usually house the first 10 to 15 cows due to calve a couple of weeks before calving starts and if the weather allows I put them back to grass for a few weeks after calving along with their calf.
A few weeks at grass really allows the newborn calf to strengthen up in a clean, disease-free environment and stands it in good stead going into the shed for the winter.
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