Beef management: cull cows, first calvers and garzing conditions

Adam Woods takes a look at dealing with the current grazing conditions, cull cow management and first-calving heifers.

Adam Woods

21 August 2019

Beef management: cull cows, first calvers and garzing conditions

If current grazing conditions persist, some farmers may have to look at weaning earlier than planned.

Grazing conditionsGrazing conditions are becoming increasingly difficult on farms in the west of the country, with areas around troughs and creep feeders particularly hard to manage. Take care not to damage paddocks too much as this will increase the amount of water retained and slow the recovery process. Some farmers use roadways or standoff areas to stand off cows for periods allowing calves continued access to the field.

Grazing conditions

Grazing conditions are becoming increasingly difficult on farms in the west of the country, with areas around troughs and creep feeders particularly hard to manage. Take care not to damage paddocks too much as this will increase the amount of water retained and slow the recovery process. Some farmers use roadways or standoff areas to stand off cows for periods allowing calves continued access to the field.

Take care when housing young calves as pneumonia incidence can increase. Early-born spring calves could be weaned in the next dry weather window and cows could be housed for a few days to allow ground conditions to recover.

Make sure all vaccinations are up to date prior to weaning and that calves are consuming concentrates at least two weeks prior to weaning. This will greatly aid the weaning process and help to avoid any unwanted setbacks like pneumonia. Tetany control measures should be introduced during this difficult weather period. A bolus is the only guaranteed way of allocating magnesium to protect against tetany. High mag buckets and access to hay/silage will help to prevent it also. Water based supplementation is unreliable during periods of wet weather as cows won’t drink enough water to get adequate magnesium.

Finishing cull cows

Suckler cows that have been scanned and are not in-calf should be marked for culling. Some farmers will opt to sell these cows in the live ring, while some will opt to finish them. Spring-calving cows that are not in-calf should be weaned early and ideally once the calf is around 250kg liveweight. In general, cows are in good body condition with the summer’s grazing conditions.

Weaning now will mean the cow has a shorter finishing period and this will save money. Delaying weaning into late autumn runs the risk of the cow losing condition and then you will have to feed concentrates to build her back up again and this will erode any profit margin.

Suckler cows are capable of a daily liveweight gain of 0.75kg/day or more once weaned. A continental suckler cow weaned at condition score 3 should take 50-60 days to finish, while a cow weaned at condition score 2.5 could take 90 days. She will also require housing. With good quality grass, feeding 5kg/day of rolled barley should be sufficient.

First-calving heifers

First-calved cows or heifers which have calved at 24 months for the first time need preferential treatment around this time of year as they are still growing animals and need to be treated accordingly. These animals should be weaned first to allow them regain some condition before housing. Trying to put on condition indoors will cost more and calving problems can occur where you do this too close to calving. Where these heifers are very thin, condition score less than 2, they should get 2-3kgs of concentrates and good quality grass to allow them pick up again. Make sure all dosing is up to date with this group as there can sometimes be issues with acquired immunity if dosing was overdone in the first two years of life.