One week on, dairy farmers are still picking up the pieces from the snow storm. The full and final costs of the freak weather event will be unquantifiable.
The direct effects of lost output, increased feed costs, more mastitis, replacing damaged buildings and equipment, time spent clearing snow and thawing equipment, and in some unfortunate cases dead animals, will be felt for some time.
The storm couldn’t have come at a worse time. Most farmers were just out of a busy four weeks of calving where up to 80% of the herd calved in four weeks.
Cows were beginning to motor, with some herds producing nearly 2kg of milk solids per day.
As a result of the hardship, cows have lost extra body condition, milk yield has dropped and fat and protein percent has taken a nosedive – all at a time when it should be increasing further.
Is there anything farmers can do now to improve the situation for the rest of the spring and lactation?
Feed
Negative energy balance – the period when cows’ milk off their backs is governed by supply and demand. Supply is governed by feed intake and demand is governed by animal output, ie milk and maintenance. When demand is greater than supply, the cow will lose body condition.
At this stage in a normal spring, most herds would have cows out grazing. After the snow, land is much wetter than normal and the forecast is for more rain this weekend, so getting cows out grazing will be difficult or impossible on most farms.
Because grass silage is much lower in energy and protein than grass, cows are going to be in negative energy balance for longer. Cows that lose more than 0.5 of body condition score (BCS) between calving and breeding have much reduced fertility performance. So monitoring BCS is critically important at this time.
There are two ways to manage it. Feed the cows more, or reduce their demand. There is only so much you can do on the feed side. Where silage quality is mediocre (68 to 70% DMD), then around 5kg of meal will need to be fed. But even at this, cows’ energy intake will be lower than demand. As a result, protein content in the milk will drop. Most herds will find themselves down around 3.3% protein when the diet is predominately silage.
Feeding more meal is not a panacea. Feeding high levels of meal to freshly calved cows with low intakes can cause stomach problems. Where higher-energy forages are available such as maize, whole-crop or chopped beet, they should be fed in addition to silage.
However, getting cows out to grass, if even for one or two hours a day, will have a more beneficial effect for a fraction of the cost.
I’d be wary of making commitments to buy large quantities of bulky feeds now. If weather changes for the better in a week or 10 days’ time you will find yourself feeding supplement just to use it up, when you should be grazing more grass. We are nearly in mid-March and weather changes fast at this time of year so we need to react quickly to the changes.
At least there is more flexibility with meal. When buying dairy nuts for cows on silage, the energy content is as important as the protein content. Energy is measured in UFL and the meal should be a minimum of 0.94 UFL as fed. Grains and pulps are high in energy so they should be at the top of the ingredients list. Protein should be heading towards 18%.
If silage quality is very poor and if cows are under stress, milking once a day or every 16 hours is a temporary measure. By reducing milking frequency milk yield will drop, but so will the cow’s energy requirement. As a result the cows should be in a better energetic state and the rate of BCS loss will decline. Cows can go back to twice-a-day milking when they go back to grass. Mastitis management needs to be good if milking frequency declines.
Calves
Like cows, calves suffered during the storm. The combination of cold air temperatures and wet beds due to snow making its way into sheds was really hard on calves. Because marts and farm-to-farm sales stopped for almost a week, sheds were overcrowded. Immunity has dropped and the risk of disease is now sky high. Expect to see an increase in scours and pneumonia over the next few weeks.
When it comes to prevention, we need to go back to basics. A good bed of straw, feeding animals well on a consistent diet, plenty of ventilation and no overcrowding will help to prevent a lot of problems.
Straw is scarce on most farms and can’t be got. Don’t skimp on straw now. It would be better to save straw later by turning calves out to a field when weather improves than skimp on straw now.
Scour
Where a calf has scour, remove the calf from the pen straight away, as this will help to prevent the scour from spreading. Most scours are caused by parasites and viruses that can spread rapidly. Keep the scouring calf hydrated and fed with milk. Scouring calves need to get one or two feeds of electrolytes and 4l of milk per day. Don’t stop feeding milk just because the calf has scour.
Stored milk from missed collections can be treated with Storemilk Plus or a similar product to stop it going off. It’s probably not practical to look at yoghurt treatments now. Where extra milk is being fed to calves, you could consider adding acidifier to the milk to increase absorption and help prevent nutritional scours.
There are a couple milk acidifier products available on the market.
If cows are going to be housed then increasing feed intake will be necessary to prevent excessive body condition score loss.Aim to get cows back out to grass as soon as conditions allow. If this will be a week or more then you need to feed more than normal of a high energy and protein nut.A good bed, well fed and avoiding overcrowding will help to prevent problems in the calf shed. Read more
Greenfield Farm: getting back to normal after Storm Emma
In pictures: ‘destruction’ as sheds buckle under snowfall on Wexford farm
One week on, dairy farmers are still picking up the pieces from the snow storm. The full and final costs of the freak weather event will be unquantifiable.
The direct effects of lost output, increased feed costs, more mastitis, replacing damaged buildings and equipment, time spent clearing snow and thawing equipment, and in some unfortunate cases dead animals, will be felt for some time.
The storm couldn’t have come at a worse time. Most farmers were just out of a busy four weeks of calving where up to 80% of the herd calved in four weeks.
Cows were beginning to motor, with some herds producing nearly 2kg of milk solids per day.
As a result of the hardship, cows have lost extra body condition, milk yield has dropped and fat and protein percent has taken a nosedive – all at a time when it should be increasing further.
Is there anything farmers can do now to improve the situation for the rest of the spring and lactation?
Feed
Negative energy balance – the period when cows’ milk off their backs is governed by supply and demand. Supply is governed by feed intake and demand is governed by animal output, ie milk and maintenance. When demand is greater than supply, the cow will lose body condition.
At this stage in a normal spring, most herds would have cows out grazing. After the snow, land is much wetter than normal and the forecast is for more rain this weekend, so getting cows out grazing will be difficult or impossible on most farms.
Because grass silage is much lower in energy and protein than grass, cows are going to be in negative energy balance for longer. Cows that lose more than 0.5 of body condition score (BCS) between calving and breeding have much reduced fertility performance. So monitoring BCS is critically important at this time.
There are two ways to manage it. Feed the cows more, or reduce their demand. There is only so much you can do on the feed side. Where silage quality is mediocre (68 to 70% DMD), then around 5kg of meal will need to be fed. But even at this, cows’ energy intake will be lower than demand. As a result, protein content in the milk will drop. Most herds will find themselves down around 3.3% protein when the diet is predominately silage.
Feeding more meal is not a panacea. Feeding high levels of meal to freshly calved cows with low intakes can cause stomach problems. Where higher-energy forages are available such as maize, whole-crop or chopped beet, they should be fed in addition to silage.
However, getting cows out to grass, if even for one or two hours a day, will have a more beneficial effect for a fraction of the cost.
I’d be wary of making commitments to buy large quantities of bulky feeds now. If weather changes for the better in a week or 10 days’ time you will find yourself feeding supplement just to use it up, when you should be grazing more grass. We are nearly in mid-March and weather changes fast at this time of year so we need to react quickly to the changes.
At least there is more flexibility with meal. When buying dairy nuts for cows on silage, the energy content is as important as the protein content. Energy is measured in UFL and the meal should be a minimum of 0.94 UFL as fed. Grains and pulps are high in energy so they should be at the top of the ingredients list. Protein should be heading towards 18%.
If silage quality is very poor and if cows are under stress, milking once a day or every 16 hours is a temporary measure. By reducing milking frequency milk yield will drop, but so will the cow’s energy requirement. As a result the cows should be in a better energetic state and the rate of BCS loss will decline. Cows can go back to twice-a-day milking when they go back to grass. Mastitis management needs to be good if milking frequency declines.
Calves
Like cows, calves suffered during the storm. The combination of cold air temperatures and wet beds due to snow making its way into sheds was really hard on calves. Because marts and farm-to-farm sales stopped for almost a week, sheds were overcrowded. Immunity has dropped and the risk of disease is now sky high. Expect to see an increase in scours and pneumonia over the next few weeks.
When it comes to prevention, we need to go back to basics. A good bed of straw, feeding animals well on a consistent diet, plenty of ventilation and no overcrowding will help to prevent a lot of problems.
Straw is scarce on most farms and can’t be got. Don’t skimp on straw now. It would be better to save straw later by turning calves out to a field when weather improves than skimp on straw now.
Scour
Where a calf has scour, remove the calf from the pen straight away, as this will help to prevent the scour from spreading. Most scours are caused by parasites and viruses that can spread rapidly. Keep the scouring calf hydrated and fed with milk. Scouring calves need to get one or two feeds of electrolytes and 4l of milk per day. Don’t stop feeding milk just because the calf has scour.
Stored milk from missed collections can be treated with Storemilk Plus or a similar product to stop it going off. It’s probably not practical to look at yoghurt treatments now. Where extra milk is being fed to calves, you could consider adding acidifier to the milk to increase absorption and help prevent nutritional scours.
There are a couple milk acidifier products available on the market.
If cows are going to be housed then increasing feed intake will be necessary to prevent excessive body condition score loss.Aim to get cows back out to grass as soon as conditions allow. If this will be a week or more then you need to feed more than normal of a high energy and protein nut.A good bed, well fed and avoiding overcrowding will help to prevent problems in the calf shed. Read more
Greenfield Farm: getting back to normal after Storm Emma
In pictures: ‘destruction’ as sheds buckle under snowfall on Wexford farm
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