SHARING OPTIONS:
The temporary creep areas are back in use on Newford Farm, with cows and calves rehoused on Tuesday and settling in well since housing.
It has been a challenging week on Newford Farm, the 100-cow suckler-to-beef herd located in Athenry, Co Galway.
With 16mm of rainfall at the start of the week and significant volumes forecast thereafter, a decision was taken to temporarily rehouse the 50 cows and calves and yearling bullocks.
The practice was relatively straightforward, with cows and calves grazing on the main Newford block, while yearling bullocks were grazing on the Tuohy’s outfarm block, where they have been housed over the winter.
Land had dried out well in the previous week, when the first cattle went to grass.
The heifers were grazing in three batches and, up until Tuesday, graze-outs had been quite good.
Heavy rainfall over Tuesday night saw some superficial damage done to a couple of paddocks.
The heifers were starting to tramp grass back into the ground due to the heavy rainfall.
The heifers were moved on Wednesday to avoid excessive poaching and to keep fresh grass under their heads.
However, with the weather not improving throughout Wednesday or Thursday, the decision was made to rehouse the heifers.
There is plenty of silage in the yard, so feed was not an issue.
SHARING OPTIONS:
While a few cases of bloat are not uncommon in dairy-beef calves, if it is more prevalent on farm you need to consider feeding consistency and feeding hygiene.
While buying for the programme remains slow due to high calf prices, some calves continue to arrive at the demonstration farm.
These calves are coming directly from farms in close proximity to the demo farm at John Hally’s in Cashel, Co Tipperary, so there is no need to feed an electrolyte on arrival as journey time is minimal.
John has noticed a few calves with bloat issues over the past week to 10 days.
Dairylink participant James King.
A virtual farm walk is taking place on James King’s farm in Ballymena, Co Antrim on Wednesday 10 March 2021.
James runs 195 Holstein cows in a predominantly autumn calving system.
Topics covered during the event will include plans for getting cows out to grass, improving soil fertility, nutrient management plans and managing grass throughout the grazing season.
Speakers at the event include host farmer James King, Dairylink Ireland adviser Aidan Cushnahan and Niall McCarron from Lakeland Dairies.
The event will be broadcast on the
Irish Farmers Journal website on Wednesday 10 March at 8pm. The free webinar will also be available to watch anytime afterwards.
SHARING OPTIONS:
The upturn in weather has brought a significant increase in grass utilisation over the last week.
After a tricky start, grazing conditions have improved significantly on Newford Farm over the last week. This has allowed the remaining yearling heifers, another batch of cows with calves at foot and yearling bullocks to be turned outdoors. This now leaves 50 cows and their calves, 56 yearling heifers and 39 yearling bullocks at grass.
The cows and calves are run in two batches and are being grazed in paddocks with the heaviest covers. As it transpires, these paddocks also typically have good shelter, with account taken of where cows and calves would be most suited to graze when closing paddocks last autumn.