Watch: time to focus on pre-calving management

With spring calving approaching for the programme farmers, dry cow management is being altered to suit calving date. Dry cows in ideal body condition have mainly been restricted in silage intakes since housing.

However, during the final eight to 10 weeks before calving, the energy requirement of dry cows will increase, as approximately 75% of foetal calf development occurs in the final two months of gestation.

Therefore, cows need to be on a rising plane of nutrition during this period to prevent metabolic problems from occurring. For the programme farmers, this will be carried out by increasing silage intakes week by week to ad-lib levels.

By increasing silage intakes in a controlled manner, it will prevent cows from gaining excessive condition where they are on good-quality forage and causing calving problems. Along with increasing silage levels, pre-calving minerals should be introduced to dry cows from now on.

On all programme farms, cows have been blood-sampled to determine the level of minerals being provided by the diet. Pre-calving minerals will be offered to balance out their dietary requirement. Proper mineral supplementation reduces the incidence of lethargic cows at calving, which reduces the number of cows requiring assistance from prolonged labour or cows with retained cleaning.

Minerals can also improve calf vigour, helping calves to suckle their mother much quicker after birth, thereby increasing the intake of colostrum in the first two hours of life.

On the programme farms, pre-calving minerals are offered in a number of ways from simply dusting on silage to offering a bolus when administering scour vaccines prior to calving.

Week in review

New cattle shed simplifies management

We started construction on a new slatted cattle shed in the middle of last year. The first cattle were moved into the shed on 7 December, which was a group of in-calf heifers. I moved the spring-calving cows into the shed on 22 December.

Although there are still a few minor jobs to be completed, the benefits of the new shed are already evident in terms of time saved. Previously, the cows would have been housed in older sheds, each with solid flooring.

Therefore, they required regular bedding, which took up a lot of time.

It was also more time-consuming to feed cows across several sheds and it was more difficult to batch cows according to body condition and restrict, or increase, the level of silage offered.

The shed measures 100 ft X 50 ft and cost £100,000 to build. But with a straw bill of £7000/year for bedding plus labour, it is a good investment.

The shed is designed so that the pens can be further divided to allow cows to be easily separated without having to move them into a handling facility.

The back of the shed can be set up for calf creeps or calving pens if needed. A handling unit is also being installed. The shed has capacity for up to 90 cows.

Spring calving

Currently, I have 38 cows and 21 heifers scanned in-calf and all are housed in the new shed. There is one cow and five heifers due to calve around 22 February with the remaining animals calving from mid-March onwards.

The earlier group were served to AI with the main group served to Angus and Stabiliser stock bulls. All cows are being fed in under an hour, with four bales of silage fed every two days.

The split feeding has worked well, as silage can be restricted as necessary and utilisation has been excellent.

But with cows entering the final weeks of gestation, I will increase silage allowance to ad-lib levels. The in-calf heifers will be moved on to ad-lib silage this week.

Minerals

Pre-calving minerals will also be introduced this week. In the past, I have offered mineral licks to cows and they have worked fine. However, I am going to change to powdered minerals dusted on top of the silage. With the powdered minerals, I can see all cows coming forward to the feeding face and ensure they are getting adequate cover.

Planning ahead for replacement heifers

Cattle have also been checked for fluke after taking a few dung samples and it seems my dosing programme at housing has been effective.

However, I think cattle may be bothered with lice, as I have noticed a few animals repeatedly licking their coat.

They will be clipped along the back and get a pour-on to target both biting and sucking lice before the weekend.

I have 25 yearling heifers, from which I would like to get as many served as possible. They are currently on ad-lib first-cut silage and 1kg of a 16% growing ration.

My plan for this group is to get them to grass as early as possible. I am fortunate in that I have three drier reseeded paddocks beside the shed where these animals are currently housed.

They will go out to grass as soon as ground conditions allow, giving them a better chance of reaching the target breeding weight by June. The heifers will mostly likely be synchronised and served to AI in June.

Male cattle

This leaves me with 15 male cattle, split into nine bulls and six steers. The steers are all Angus and will be killed under the premium breed scheme.

The bulls will be pushed for slaughter by June. The stronger bulls are eating 5kg/day of the growing ration and the younger ones on 4kg/day along with silage.

They have been gaining 1.3kg/day during the past month and weighed 380kg to 400kg at the start of the month. Feeding levels will be increased towards ad-lib from now on.

I finished five steers on 12 December. They were Limousin-bred animals at just over 21 months of age. Carcase weights averaged 389kg at a beef price of £3.57/kg.

Seven cull cows were slaughtered on 18 September. They averaged 363kg at £2.76/kg.

I have four more to sell, which includes one cow that scanned empty, one cow that aborted and two heifers that were not put to the bull.

They will be offered the finishing ration for a short period to improve carcase conformation prior to slaughter.