Grass

While grazing conditions have been far from perfect for the last few weeks, there are a few farmers down south starting to move weanlings out to grass. Next week’s weather forecast doesn’t look too bad.

Straw is at €50/bale, and silage is anywhere from €25-€40/bale depending on quality. With meal at €350-€400/t, you will reduce your costs by moving animals from a silage and meal diet to a grass diet. Grazing a 350kg weanling can reduce your costs by half.

Secondly, weanlings can double their live weight gain by being turned outdoors on early spring grass.

Weight gains of over 1kg/day can be achieved on grass, while weanlings can struggle to gain 0.5kg/day indoors on a silage diet. The last thing is kick starting growth.

By grazing off paddocks, this will kick start growth and make sure you have enough grass when demand rises in the coming weeks.

You can cease meal feeding to weanlings if you think you will be able to turn them out. Allowing animals into a yard area before turnout can help let off some steam, and letting them out hungry will also help them settle better.

Getting out fertiliser when land is dry is also important.

If P and K are low, a compound fertiliser will be a better option. There are concerns that due to the high price of fertiliser over the last two or three years, a lot less P and K fertiliser has been spread.

This could have a severe impact on silage yields and grass growth.

Use your most recent soil samples to determine what you need in terms of fertiliser compounds. Watery slurry is a good option on fields grazed off early.

Try and graze tight in good weather. If the weather changes and clean outs are not as good, you can graze tighter in the next round.

Calving Issues

Calving seems to be going well around the country. Cows and calves are slowly being turned out to pasture on a lot of farms in the south, reducing disease build up, straw usage and labour input.

It’s important to keep a close eye on young calves outdoors. Keep an eye for navel infections and make sure all calves are sucking and following mothers.

Try and keep young calves in sheltered paddocks, as weather conditions will likely not stay as good as they are at the moment.

Remember to keep safety in your head at all times. A cow is never more dangerous than when she is with her newborn calf. Never trust them no matter how quiet they are. Watch out for tetany in the cows.

Feeding some calmag through some meal, feeding hay or silage or dosing with a magnesium bolus are some of the best methods of preventing tetany.

In this week’s special spring animal health focus we talk to Shaun Diver from the Irish Farmers Journal beef and sheep demonstration farm about keeping calves healthy on Tullamore Farm, including calving protocols and vaccination plans.