General Detail
- Ground conditions in Newford are very good at the moment, considering it’s the first week in October. Utilisation of paddocks has been very good. The last round of CAN + S was spread on paddocks last Saturday the 29th September (one bag / acre).
- The second group of cows were weaned this week; the first group of weanlings (36) were weaned last Thursday the 27th September.
- Newford will be planning the 3rd group of cows , which will be the last group of cows and weanlings to be weaned next week
- All weanlings have received their booster IBR vaccination before weanling
- The weanlings are been housed and penned adjacent to their mothers. Gates are tied in place so the weanlings cannot access their mothers, but could see them as the photo shows.
- The weanlings have access to concentrates and silage, while their mothers are fed straw only to encourage them to dry off.
- 36 hours later the weanlings are let back into their mother’s for their last suck and then the weanlings are moved away, out of sight of their mothers to a straw bedded shed with access to creep and silage.
- The priority for the weanlings then , is too get them back to grass as soon as possible and to reduce any health issues.
- The first of weanlings weaned last Thursday the 27th of September went back to grass on Wednesday the 3rd of October.
- After drying off the cows, they will be fed silage. Lime will be spread on the slats and the slats will be scraped daily to prevent mastitis. This practised has proven to be very successful over the last number of years.
- Newford farm, will be hoping to return these cows back to grass for a period of time if weather conditions allowed it.
- One cow die during the weaning process ( Grass Tetany)
- The 61 steer bullocks are still getting 5 kg of concentrates at grass and were weighed on Thursday the 23rd of August. The summary is as follow.
- The aim is to try and finished a portion of these in-spec bullocks off grass, but this will be all-weather depended.
- Meal feeding at grass commence on the 4th July for the 61 steers
- To date the steers have roughly consumed 430 Kgs of concentrates
- Costing €116 ( 27 cent / Kg)
- These bullocks are now 168 days at grass since turnout up to the 4th October
Grassland Management Details
- Grass cover taken last Tuesday the 10th September
Key recommendations for this week
- Monitor grass conditions daily.
- Monitored cows after weaning for mastitis
- Monitored weanlings for pneumonia and coccidiosis
- Keep mineral buckets in the paddock to prevent grass tetany as temperature begins to drop back at night time
- Identify paddocks for closing in October