Farmer Focus: Calving complete and silage ground prepared
Eurig Jenkins © Richard Stanton Calving is complete and calves are back at market, so all is going well.
With calving finished, it’s now a good time to reflect on how it all went.
In general, only a handful of milk fevers, two retained cleansings, one caesarean section and half a dozen backward calves mid-March – and this resulted in two dead cows, two days after calving.
See also: How a spring-calving herd started using genomics
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Both had twins and the cows refused to rehydrate themselves or eat, which then led to the inevitable.
Bedding down calving pens, by hand, with chopped round bales of rushes worked really well and was cheap.
Unfortunately, six housed cows developed foul in their feet so severe we had no option but to dry them off and send them out for grazing.
Hopefully they recover as barren cows for mid-summer.
So far, mastitis rates stand at eight cases treated, and April cell count is at 60,000 cells/ml – it can only go up, though I think the new automatic cluster removers may have something to do with it.
About 120 calves were given away in the orange market. Now that our TB inconclusive reactors have been retested and gone clear, we are back in the “big boy” money.
Our calves we are keeping for replacements are in three big groups, fed on once-a-day milk, ad-lib calf pellets and straw, and are looking well.
The main slurry lagoon is empty, silage ground harrowed, rolled and fertiliser applied, and grazing platform second round applied with fertiliser.
We only need rain now. Cows finished their first full rotation of the grazing platform on 1 April, with probably the best ground conditions ever.
With only three weeks before we start serving, keeping condition on cows and getting them to peak milk is the aim.
We are still behind in clearing fallen trees and branches, and also have a few days of repairing fences.
All staff are taking days off for holidays during the month to spend with their loved ones, and I’m booked in for a spa treatment and a night away with the Mrs.
Also, I am going to take a few days away on mini-breaks before silage season starts again.
By the rough count of bales we have spare, it’s definitely a year to make quality, not quantity.