Body Condition Score

Keep an eye on body condition score of suckler cows. If silage quality is poor there is a risk that body condition could drop off. Take a walk through your cows and look at the condition of them.

They need to be around a 2.5 at calving. A score of one is very thin, while a score of five is very fat.

Calving with too much condition or calving thin cows will lead to problems. Addressing these issues a few months from calving will lead to better results.

Can you separate out thin cows or first calving heifers for some preferential treatment and then restrict the rest of the herd if they are over fleshed?

A good quality dry cow mineral should be fed six to eight weeks prior to calving. Scour vaccines should also be given at the latest a minimum of two to three weeks prior to calving taking place.

Pneumonia in housed weanlings: I have heard of more cases of pneumonia in housed weanlings this week out on farms. Keep a close eye on cattle to make sureall are feeding properly.

An animal off feed is one of the first signs of an animal being sick. If you have a case of pneumonia in a shed you need to be extra vigilant that it doesn’t spread through the shed.

Don’t delay involving the vet, as early intervention is key in a positive outcome in terms of treatment. Vaccinating in the face of an outbreak isn’t good practice, and you are better to get over the sickness challenge and then vaccinate when animals are better.

Vaccinated weanlings can still get sick, so it’s important to be on top of lying areas, feeding space, ventilation and diets when it comes to keeping weanlings healthy.

Break/Family time

Don’t forget to take a break over the Christmas period. On many beef farms workload can be kept to a minimum over the next 7-10 days, with daily herding tasks and feeding animals just carried out.

Put in extra silage on Christmas Eve and double up on bedding in creep areas and straw bedded sheds so you have less jobs to do over the holiday period.

Spend some time with family and take time away from the farm.

This can sometimes help solve problems or issues when you come back taking a fresh look at things.

Happy Christmas

I want to wish all our readers a happy Christmas and the health and good luck to make 2025 a prosperous year on farms.

The Irish Farmers Journal attended and organised a huge number of events in 2024 and it was great to meet farmers and have the chats, and hopefully we will meet again in 2025.

The highlight for me was our mart series in the back end, and we are putting together a plan for more mart events in January, so stay tuned to the beef channel on farmersjournal.ie and the beef pages in the paper for updates.

As always, if anyone has comments or views on what the livestock team cover on the livestock pages you can contact me at awoods@farmersjournal.ie.