The last five days have been pretty horrific on farms. Farmers on high land in the east and south seem to have fared worse, but serious disruption was caused to everyone.

At this stage, most roads to dairy farms have been cleared and if milk has not been collected yet, it should be collected at some point on Monday.

There are so many jobs to be completed on farms that a list should be drawn up. Prioritise the important jobs.

Milk collection

If milk has not been collected yet then clearing the roads to get the lorry in is obviously a big priority. If the bulk tank is full, you will need to store milk elsewhere either to be sold, or used as calf feed. If being sold, the storage tank must be spotless and the milk must be chilled going in – so pumped from the bulk tank. Recirculate the milk once or twice a day to keep it right.

A dry lie is critically important for calves as they spend a lot of time lying down

The snow managed to find its way into nearly every shed on farms. As a result, straw-bedded sheds are soaked. Ideally they should be cleaned out and replaced with fresh straw, but if time does not allow you will just have to top up with plenty of fresh straw. A dry lie is critically important for calves as they spend a lot of time lying down. They will lose a serious amount of heat by lying on wet beds and will be more open to infections and scour.

Cow’s intakes suffered during the storm. Whether they were inside or outside they were uneasy and unsettled. As a result yield seems to have dropped in many herds and body condition score will be adversely affected also.

The challenge now is to make up some lost ground. Feed the best quality silage available. Depending on silage quality, it might be necessary to increase the amount of meal fed. The most I would be prepared to feed would be 5kg to spring-calving cows and this should be built up gradually over a week after calving.

Mastitis risk

It’s a high risk time for mastitis. Clean down and lime cubicles twice a day to keep them right. Some cases are inevitable. Older and younger cows seem to be more at risk. If cubicle hygiene is less than ideal consider standing cows off in a yard for an hour or so before letting back into the shed to give the teats a chance to close in.

Finally, it’s been a tough few days and everyone needs to look out for each other. Check in with neighbours and try to pool resources to get through this difficult time.

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