Heavy rainfall over the past week has led to ground conditions deteriorating quickly on the BETTER farms. To minimise sward damage, heavier cattle, such as cows or cattle that will be finished over the winter, are being housed.

On/off grazing has been used in a few cases where the grazing block has a stand-off hardcore area, which allows cattle to graze for a few hours before being moved off the paddock.

In drier areas, some of the programme farms are giving cows a 12-hour and one-day grazing allocation. With cattle moving quickly around the last rotation and in a controlled manner, it is helping to keep grass utilisation reasonably good.

Given the time of year, it is more important to remove the heaviest grass covers before housing all stock.

Grazing days ahead are still running at 15 to 30 days ahead, but with utilisation falling, days ahead can be easily reduced by a week.

If the weather settles and ground conditions improve, some of the under-grazed paddocks will be grazed out with light weanlings in line with their autumn grazing planner. However, this does not include paddocks that have now been closed for the winter.

Finishing cattle

Cattle being slaughtered off grass have had meal feeding levels increased to keep them settled during heavy rainfall and to offset the lower feed value of grass. Most of the farms have now drafted the vast majority of cattle that are being slaughtered off grass. Most of the remaining cattle will be gone by the end of the month.

Cattle housed in late September have been performing well indoors on the finishing diet. These cattle have been sampled for worms and fluke on some farms.

Worm burdens are generally low, but there have been some samples showing a high presence of fluke.

Cattle have been treated with an appropriate product to cover the animal during the finishing period, with attention paid to the withdrawal period. One farm has had a positive case of rumen fluke this year, but having had previous experience and from regular weighing, this problem was identified early.

Cows being housed now will not be treated for worms until at least six weeks post-housing. At present, cows are being housed in good flesh, indicating few problems with parasites in late autumn.

  • Heavy rainfall has led to ground conditions becoming difficult on a number of programme farms.
  • Heavy cattle are being housed first to relieve ground pressure and to minimise sward damage.
  • Where cattle remain at grass, grazing rotations have been shortened, with cattle moving quicker around paddocks.
  • Grass utilisation is variable due to the weather. Where grazing paddocks have been split to one-day or 12-hour allocations, utilisation is better compared with two- to three-day blocks.
  • Finishing cattle have been sampled for worms and fluke.
  • Cows will be blanket-treated for fluke around six to eight weeks post-housing.
  • Clipping the backs of cattle at housing will help to prevent cattle from sweating indoors. It also reduces problems with lice. When clipping cattle, take at least three runs of the blade either side of the spine to have any effect.