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Herd Update 22.03.17

General Details
• 91 cows with 94 calves have been born (Four sets of twins and one mortality)
• 86 % of the Newford herd has now calved in the first 7 weeks - first calf born was on 2nd February. No major problems to report so far.
• 71 cows and 74 calves gone to grass last Monday the 13th March and stayed out grazing during the bad weather last weekend.
• 17 cows with very young calves went out to grass today 22nd March. 3 freshly calved cows remain in the shed with 15 left to calve.
• The average weight of the calves born is 43kg
• The average calving score is 1.49 and 90% have a calving score between one and two.

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• The 89 yearlings are grazing silage ground since 14th March for closing in early April
• 70% of the home farm has been grazed off (18.74ha)
• 11 % has been grazed off on the 3 out farms. 32% of the total farm has been grazed but this will increase rapidly as more cows and calves go out.
• 26 early claves have received their vaccination for Clostrdial disease at 6 weeks – Tribovax T
• As ground conditions improve this week slurry will be spread on 20 acres of grazing at home and ½ bag of urea will be spread on the rest of the whole farm grazing area.
• Lime is being applied to the slats to reduce infection levels for cows that are waiting to calve. It is also being applied to straw bedding under the cows and calves to reduce infection.

Grassland Details
• Farm Cover : 1217 kg/DM/ha
• Growth /Ha : 40 kg/DM/ha
• Estimated DM : @ 17 %
• Current stocking rate LU / Ha 2.07
• Farm Demand / Ha ( kg DM/ha/day ) 23 Kg
• Difficult to achieve good clean out of paddocks in current wet weather (15mm 17th March )

Suckler Herd
• Magnesium buckets are in the paddocks with the cows to prevent grass tetany
• Some of the earlier calved cows are beginning to come into heat

Key recommendations for this week
1. Calves will continue to be disbudded at 2 weeks and receive their intranasal IBR vaccination.
2. Carry out repairs to fencing on the new rented farm.
3. Move cows and calves to the new outside farm to speed up first grazing and ease the pressure on the home platform.
4. Turn out more cows and calves from the shed as weather allows.

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