I lost a cow last week. She was a first-calver that showed up with a high presence of worms in autumn 2017. She recovered well and despite our concerns she calved unaided in March and even though we kept an eye out for her, all appeared to be going okay.

She was one of a handful of cows that got treated for worms at testing in July and was in superb condition until the middle of September. She went downhill in recent weeks and went off eating, despite further dosing.

Dung samples showed a strong presence of lungworm. There was no coughing but we suspect the damage was done last year and this second bout got the better of her.

You just can’t plan for every eventuality. She produced a decent calf nonetheless, so that’s some consolation although it won’t be retained as a replacement.

Another unexpected event last week was a random cross-compliance check for animal identification. All went smoothly but at the same time, there is nothing like the word “inspection” to make you feel uneasy.

Weaning

Weaning is tipping away nicely and by next week it will only be the heifers and youngest bull calves left on the cows. Weather conditions and shed availability will dictate when it’s their turn.

The bull calves on the older cows performed well, averaging 1.42kg/day since they were last weighed on the first week in September. They have now joined the other weaned calves and the hope is that these will train them into ration and a routine quick enough.

Given the forecast and schedule for closing paddocks, it looks like they will be housed by the weekend.

It will be interesting to see the reaction to the Budget 2019 announcement of a new suckler scheme in the form of Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot scheme (BEEP).

The finer details of this new acronym have to be worked out but it looks straightforward from what I can see. The potential catch for me in this voluntary scheme will be if there are certain time windows to be adhered to regarding recording.

Weighing of cows and calves at weaning has been standard practice here since 2012, with calf birth weights recorded since 2014.

I do it for a number of reasons. It gives a handle on how well a cow is performing in terms of rearing her calf and is a useful tool if a culling decision has to be made. Weighing is also very useful at selling as you have a good enough handle on what weight the stock are prior to sale and you can budget and make decisions accordingly.

It’s done when each group is convenient to the yard and in conjunction with any other crush work so it’s not an ordeal by any means.

It’s also a super way to observe calves’ behaviour as they stand on the scales.

Some just stand there while others justify the decision not to retain replacement heifers from certain cows.

The cull cows have had a few walks over the scales so far and are performing well, averaging 1kg/day. I held on to them a bit longer compared to other years with a decision made to see if we could improve the weights a bit more.