One of the biggest nuisances on a dairy farm at this time of year is to have dry cows and late-calving cows hanging around.

The mindset of most farmers has firmly shifted from being in calving mode to breeding/summer mode and having these cows around doesn’t fit that narrative.

No farmer wants to have late-calving cows, but, at the same time, it is inevitable that some cows will calve much later than others.

While their milk production for this season will obviously be much less than a cow that calves in February or March, the big issue with these cows is that they have a much higher likelihood of not going back in calf.

Surplus cows

For this reason, many farmers who have some surplus cows have tended to sell these later calving cows.

With the high price of beef, these cows will make good money in the factory or indeed to be sold on to other dairy farmers who are happy to milk these cows on.

With the high price of milk and with grass growth beginning to take off, one question is whether it’s better to sell these cows now, or later in the summer.

There is potential lost milk income if these cows leave the farm now. Two issues with this policy is the contribution that these cows make to peak supply and what impact keeping them will have on silage stocks next winter.

One option to improve the chances of getting these cows back in calf is to milk them once a day for the next number of weeks.

This will limit any body condition score loss and should enable these cows to resume cycling activity sooner than if milked twice a day.

Hormone programmes are also available, but these will really only work if used after 30 or 40 days from calving.

Either way, getting these cows back in calf for next season is going to be a challenge.