Faecal sample results: I spoke to a farmer during the week about the faecal sampling element of the BEEP-S scheme. I asked him about the results and he said: “I don’t know but aren’t they done and that’s the important thing.”

While it’s important to get them completed to comply with the scheme, it’s more important to interpret the results. The results in question were negative for liver fluke and low positive for rumen fluke. The question is – what you do if you have a low positive result for rumen fluke?

Speaking to a few vets, the advice is to talk to your vet about other things taking place on the farm. Are animals thriving? Have there been any other issues? This should determine whether you dose or not.

The problem with dosing for rumen fluke is there are only two products on the market and if everyone doses every year with these products, resistance could develop in time.

Be careful around using just faecal sampling for deciding on whether to dose for fluke or not. The best information you can get is to follow up on cattle that are slaughtered in factories. Detecting active fluke infection should determine whether you need to dose or not.

Feeding byproducts: During last week’s winter finishing webinar, Declan Marren received a question in on feeding byproducts to finishing cattle and specifically on Eornagold.

Eornagold is a moist concentrate feed comprised primarily of distiller’s grains. Its dry matter (DM) ranges from 35% to 38%, with a crude protein value of 28% and energy value of 13.5ME (MJ/kgDM). In finishing rations, it can be included at a rate of 3kg to 5kg or around 25% of the total DM of the diet. Higher levels can be fed but you need to keep an eye on oil levels as they can be high which can affect intake and fibre digestibility. Comparing it to barley and soya on a relative feed value basis, it is currently worth around €90/t to €100/t (€255/tDM). However, if you are paying for haulage, a lower dry matter feed is more expensive to transport. Maize distillers (25% crude protein) is trading at around €255/t to €260/t fresh weight, which again comparing to current barley/soya costs is probably not offering a whole lot of value over a barley/soya mix.

Closing up paddocks: With weather changing and housing not that far away, attention should turn to setting the farm up for early grass next spring. Early grass won’t grow in January. It will accumulate on paddocks that are closed up early in autumn and this will set the farm up for early grass next spring. Pick off some dry paddocks, graze them as tight as possible and close them up. Try to pick sheltered paddocks as these could be grazed in difficult weather conditions next spring. On heavy farms the target is to start closing paddocks in the last week of September and to have 60% of the farm grazed by 31 October. Drier farms can start a week later and have 60% of the farm grazed by 7 November. Once paddocks are closed, don’t be tempted to go back in and graze with weanlings.