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All cattle, with the exception of six yearling heifers, are now housed for winter management. The last of the breeding cows were housed on Wednesday 4 November, along with their calves.
Normally, we are able to build up a good bank of grass for grazing during autumn. But this year, we struggled to do so. Grass growth from the end of August was limited and this meant we were running tight for grazing during October.
Higher growth
We have been measuring grass each week and yields are up year-on-year. But with the farm carrying more stock, demand is higher also.
Cows were grazing on daily allocations this autumn, which meant animals were moving around the rotation quicker than we would have liked. This also made it harder to build covers.
Early housing
Winter housing started earlier than normal to ease grazing demand. The first group of 20 cows were housed back in the final week of September.
These cows had the strongest of the bull calves at foot. With cows moving to fresh grass every day during October, it was not practical to use the creep feeders and keep moving them on a daily basis.
Weaning
Once the first group of cows were housed, meal was introduced to their calves. The original plan was to wean the 20 bull calves after a week inside, but they were slow to eat meal.
As such, weaning was delayed until three weeks after housing. So far, these are the only calves to be weaned.
With a staggered approach to housing, the calves housed at a later date are not long settled in the shed and eating concentrates. We will most likely start weaning these animals from this weekend in small batches based on housing date.
Diet
The calves still on the cows are eating 2kg/day of an 18% ration, in preparation for weaning. The bull calves, which have been weaned, are eating 3kg/day of the ration and good silage.
They will move up to 4kg/day of ration by the end of the month, then step up towards ad-lib feeding in the spring.
Weighing
Bull calves were weighed a few days after coming off the cows and averaged just over 300kg. Last year, bull calves averaged 262kg at weaning when corrected to a standard 200 days old.
There is still a small group of late-born bulls to be weaned and weighed yet. But this year’s final average weaning weight should still be ahead of last year.
Cross breeding
A big factor in getting heavier weaning weights has been the move away from using Limousin bulls on a pure Limousin cow.
There is now a mix of Angus, Simmental and some Shorthorn breeding in the herd, along with Limousin breeding.
This has brought greater hybrid vigour into breeding animals and it is paying off in terms of cow and calf performance.
The benefits of cross breeding can also be seen in the carcase data from the young bulls slaughtered earlier this year. Compared to 2019, average age at slaughter was reduced by 23 days to 448 days, yet carcase weight increased by 31kg to 394kg.
Spring-calving cows scanned
Between cows and replacements, there were 86 breeding females that ran with stock bulls this summer, compared with 79 animals in 2019.
So far, 62 cows have been scanned, with 60 animals in this group settled in-calf.
The two cows not in-calf are young animals with no good reason for being empty.
Regardless of this, they will be weaned and fattened, along with a third cow that is an older animal and not great on her feet.
Late-calving cows
There are another 12 cows and 12 replacement heifers still to be scanned, with this task scheduled for 13 November.
While the heifers will calve down next March, the 12 cows are the later-calving animals in the herd. The target is to have all cows calving over March and April.
Our plan was to sell off any cows that are scanned to calve in May, then replace them with bought-in replacement heifers that are calving down in March. But replacements have become extremely expensive to source, so this may need a rethink.
From the 60 cows that are already scanned, all bar two animals are calving over a six-week period beginning in early March.
Once all cows and replacements are scanned, we will hopefully have 78 to 80 animals settled in-calf, which gives us a good chance to have 75 calves born and weaned next year.
Fluke and worms
All calves have been wormed and vaccinated for pneumonia and IBR. The cows and calves that were housed first will be treated for fluke as of this weekend.
Having consulted with our farm vet, we are using an injectable fluke product again this year. It is slower to administer compared with a pour-on or oral drench, but I do like the satisfaction that the dose is getting in to the animal and working effectively.
Silage
We are around 150t of silage short of demand this year, mainly from the lighter yields in first cut and an increase in stock numbers. Fortunately, we have additional silage sourced from a neighbouring farm, which is currently being fed to stock.
First-cut silage is 71.8% D-value, 30.6% dry matter, 14.2% crude protein and 11.5 ME. As this silage is limited, it is being held back for feeding in the runup to and after calving.
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