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With housing under way as ground conditions deteriorate, it is a good time to pregnancy scan spring-calving suckler cows, if this task has yet to be completed.
Cows can be accurately scanned from 40 days after service. The earlier cows are scanned after breeding, the easier it is for the technician to identify the sex of the calf and cows carrying twins.
Once scanning has been completed, empty cows can be offloaded, thereby saving feed and increasing housing space for others.
Information
Check through the scanning information on predicted calving dates. How many cows are calving later than you would like?
In the case of a herd calving in March to early May, if there is a handful of out-lying cows with predicted calving dates in late May or June, these animals may be worth moving on also.
As cows are being penned at housing time, use the scanning info to group as many cows together with similar predicted calving dates.
This makes it easier to control silage intakes, offer pre-calving minerals and watch cows as they spring up compared with penning cows at random.
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