John Egerton, Fermanagh

The spring herd is due to commence calving at the end of February. Cows are being monitored closely now to ensure they maintain body condition.

I have pulled out one older cow, which scanned in-calf with twins for the second year running, and a second calving cow. Both were losing some body condition and are now penned separately for individual attention.

All in-calf heifers are on ad-lib silage and silage is also being increased to ad-lib feeding for cows to support calf growth, which is at its greatest over the last six weeks of pregnancy.

I have often read of the best practice to feed minerals and vitamins to cows pre-calving. This is a practice I have never done before and, to date, I have never had any of the problems at calving which would be normally associated with mineral deficiencies.

This year, to be certain, I took blood samples from cows last month to see exactly what the mineral status was. The blood samples were analysed through the veterinary laboratory at Stormont. Analysis was completed for copper, selenium, iodine and vitamin E.

The results indicated that all of these elements were within the recommended range so I will continue with the normal practice of feeding silage only up until calving.

Since joining the programme, I have found that monitoring herd performance and animal health through weighing, faecal egg counts or blood profiling to be very useful.

Not only can it show the need for a change in nutrition, or the need for dosing, but, in this case, has reinforced that sufficient mineral and vitamins seem to be provided from forage grown on my farm.

Obviously, every farm’s mineral status is different and, unless blood profiles have been taken, feeding minerals is probably the best insurance to ensure all trace elements are being provided.

Last year’s spring calving was completed over a period of seven weeks and three days. Based on this year’s scanning, it should be something similar.

Calving over such a short period brings huge benefits. It means a short period of concentrated effort. Having a batch of cows at a similar stage of the breeding cycle also helps to increase the display of signs of heat, which makes it easier to pick up heats in cows at grass for inseminating in late spring and early summer.

In the past, where calving took place over six months, heat detection was more laboured. Tight calving simplifies routine management tasks throughout the year such as dehorning, castration, vaccinations, worming and pregnancy diagnosis.

The results of a targeted breeding and calving pattern over the past three years is now materialising in the batch of last year’s spring-born heifers.

Of 26 heifer calves born last spring, I am in the fortunate position of having at least 20 of these, which are suitable to keep as replacements and are on target to meet the breeding weight of 380kg by the end of May.

I have a decision to make over the next few months as to how many of these should be bulled and how many to finish next autumn.

Those being bulled will be vaccinated for BVD before the breeding season. One option I am considering is to vaccinate all suitable replacements, artificially inseminate them and sell the heifers that are surplus to requirements as in-calf heifers at the end of the summer.

I am not too sure of the market for these but will try to gauge demand over the next few months. To be worthwhile, I would have to get at least the value of these heifers if slaughtered plus the cost of inseminating and vaccinations for BVD.

I completed benchmarking in January for the 2013 calendar year and, although margins were up, it reinforced the impact that the cost of extra meal feeding in spring 2013 had on overall feed costs.

Although weather conditions have not been favourable yet, I would hope to get the autumn-born calves and last year’s spring-born animals out to grass over the next few weeks.

Meal feeding has been reduced to the spring-born animals to get compensatory growth from spring grass. The autumn-born calves, being much younger, will not realise the same level of compensatory growth and so will continue to be fed at 1kg of meal per day until turnout.

On/off grazing has worked well for me in the past where ground or weather conditions are suitable.

Grass grazed in early spring has a similar feeding value to concentrates so every opportunity to get this into the diet and reduce concentrate requirements will be taken.