Breeding Season
The breeding season is just concluding on Newford farm this week (w/c 03rd of July). The tail paint on cows has all but been washed off with recent rainfall, luckily with little need to replace it, as very little bulling activity has been observed, and the bull’s chinball marking the few recent cows sufficiently.
The 7 week breeding season of heifers drew to a close in mid-June with approximately 50% conception to first serve expected and low levels of repeat activity since the end of breeding.
From observation, in the region of 60% of cows appear to have held to first service at the moment, with a few cows holding to first service but repeating on the third cycle. Overall however the breeding season seems to have gone well and we’ll know more at scanning.
Grassland Management
The first cut of silage was taken on the 1st June with 2500g/ac slurry and 60 units protected urea/acre has gone out on this ground since then, for a second cut.
The clover which was over-sown at a rate of 2kg/ac in early and mid-May has struck and seems to be doing well. These paddocks are being grazed at lower covers of between 1000 and 1200kgDM/ha in order to let light into it and allow the clover to become well established. Clover paddocks from previous years skipped a round of fertiliser in May and will be skipped again, or receive a very low level in July.
The dry spell at the end May/early June contributed to a week of tight grazing from the 13th to 19th June, during which cows were buffer fed bales alongside grass to ensure grass could be kept in front of yearling stock to maintain performance. Grass quickly bounced back once the weather softened and the application of between 16 and 18 units of protected urea + Sulphur, depending on clover content had us back on track. The difference in the week can be seen in the two grass wedges below taken on the 19th and 26th June respectively.
Replacement Heifers
Our replacement heifer calves are over 2 months at grass now and are doing very well. They received their booster Clostridial vaccine recently along with a shot of copper. They are receiving 1kg of a 16% CP nut per day and on a recent weighing averaged 140kg achieving 0.85 kg DLG.
Yearling cattle are at grass and thriving well. They will be weighed shortly, and we’ll have updated information on them in next month’s newsletter. July will also bring the 100-day weighing of cows and calves. Calves are doing well.
