Weaning kind of snuck up on me this autumn. With the exception of the cull cows, nothing else was weaned till two weeks ago. It’s not that it was forgotten about but with the way grass growth was powering on since the end of August, you’d almost be confused into thinking it was spring.
While September felt more like May, October’s weather did as it usually does and growth slowed down and ground got softer.
I weighed some of the calves lately and I was very impressed with how they have performed since the drought broke. Keeping that momentum going is a priority and they should benefit from good-quality silage that was made last month. Something else that will also help in that regard is that all the calves are now trained for meal feeding from their daily visits to the yard in the dry spell.
The main crop of calves were earmarked to be weaned first and, as they were a smaller number of them, I started with the bulls with the heifers getting the same procedure a week later.
The intention was to wean some indoors and put paddles in the noses of others and leave them run with the cows and outside.
A combination of a broken crush gate and deteriorating weather meant the weaning process moved indoors and cows were put on the opposite side of a gate and put on hay to dry them off.
Things were relatively quiet for the bulls but, as ever when the heifer calves were shut out from the cows, the volume was extra loud, especially on the first night. It eased a good bit from there and I think that’s a legacy of the extra handling they got during the drought.
Calves born from mid-April onwards got a reprieve, but I will wean those younger heifer calves this week and give the younger bull calves another while on the cows if I can.
Along with their mothers they have been on-off grazing for the last fortnight with the weaned and bucket-reared heifers. They’re well used to coming in every evening, but it was funny to see that dairy-beef calves were happier to stay outdoors regardless of the weather. I think Friday night was the only night they came in.
That bodes well for the next few months as they will be out-wintered.
They have been tidying up a reseeded field and the plan is to transition them over to redstart over the next week.
Some will stay on it for the winter while for others it’s a short-term option until the housing plan falls in to place. It’s almost 20 years since there was a brassica on the farm so it will take a small bit of time getting used to the routine of it again.
The weanling heifers were kind of put on the long finger last winter and fell through the cracks when it came to the priorities around the yard.
Some are still playing catch up and I don’t intend on repeating those mistakes again. It’s better to see them drive on and be ready to hit the ground running next spring.
As part of a longer-term goal of making the yard they are in a lot more labour friendly, the area connecting the buildings there was a bit of a construction site last winter. Because it’s the hub between them, the crush was only used when it was absolutely necessary over the last housing period. Thankfully, that project is almost completed and it will allow me to kick on a bit and make cattle work easier still.
