This is especially true in weanlings or intensively fed cattle, as it helps to keep animals cooler and reduces heat stress in a heavily stocked shed. Clipping should be carried out as cattle are being housed to keep stress levels to a minimum. It requires good handling facilities to make sure cattle are properly secured. When clipping cattle, the more hair removed from the animal’s back the better. Taking at least three runs either side of the spine will help to reduce the animal’s sweating when housed. You should also try to clip around the head and neck. Trimming the tail helps to keep cattle cleaner. Clipping will also help reduce the incidence of lice on cattle. On some farms a lice treatment will be needed later on during the housing period.

Ad-lib feeding: With some silage analysis coming back poor and concentrates relatively good-value, many farmers are choosing to go the route of ad-lib meal feeding, rather than a longer finishing period on grass silage and meal. Where starting from a low base, animals should be built up to ad-lib feeding over a period of three to four weeks. If this transition takes place too quickly, the bugs in the rumen will not change quickly enough and this will greatly increase the chances of acidosis. This can then lead to laminitis, will greatly reduce thrive and will mean the build-up phase will have to start from the beginning again.

There is merit in including feed buffers in diets at very high meal feeding rates. They will help to regulate the pH in the rumen. Ensure they have access to a high-fibre source and a good clean water supply. This is critical, especially for bulls. Drinker size can be an issue in some sheds where they don’t fill quickly enough and the animals don’t wait to take their full requirement of water. This will have a knock-on effect on feed intake. Check the drinkers daily for faecal material and clean out if necessary. Trough management is critical to achieving high levels of animal performance. Once built on to ad-lib feeding, the volume of feed offered should be targeted slightly above average intake levels to prevent feed going stale. Have a vermin control plan in place for birds and rodents. For animals approaching slaughter, monitor liveweight of animals to avoid issues with overweight carcases.

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Focus on winter indoor management