Sorry I just cant get my head around keeping soft labour intensive cattle types on whats obviously a harsh climate/terrain and difficult land to farm
Jalex sale
- Thread starter livestock 1
- Start date
livestock 1
Member
Well they are inside for six months and the store sales don’t like shyte
If our older /main herd of cows have to come in they will have to be sold its just not on financially,capital or labour wise thats aiming for 120-130 days on feed, different world I suppose .
livestock 1
Member
Can’t really do much out wintering too wet and we can feed them faster inside than out
Would like a few natives but would only be a limited number fairly like the sim luings or salers
Most good shaped limmy calves out of good cows are more ppk to sell a lot more so small lim can be dear heifers especially that can’t be done with lower grades
- Location
- Cheshire
Our cows will be in 4-5 months. I much prefer it when they come in against feeding them outside. Much faster to feed them, check them in 2 minutes vs 30 minutes outside. Making a pile of muck to spread in the spring to grow more grass. Clean out is an hour every Sunday, roll out 3x 6ft round bales a week for bedding.
livestock 1
Member
The ones with no muck are chuntering now
- Location
- Cheshire
We’ve always valued that ruddy great heap of muck in the spring.
I know it’s not as good as the muck from the fattening sheds but you can still see to the inch where we spread it!
M-J-G
Member
It's perhaps not as good as that from finishers for immediate availability, but it will convert into N given time, plus it's of high value in other ways.We’ve always valued that ruddy great heap of muck in the spring.
We outwinter some cows and house others, outdoor cattle still produce dung and we take westerwolds silage off the outwintering ground with no fertiliser.
The indoor cows are kept on straw from our own arable land which all goes back onto stubbles.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
How do you get a ruddy great muck heap from 3 6ft round bales of straw per week?We’ve always valued that ruddy great heap of muck in the spring.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I agree.
@livestock 1 and @Anymulewilldo are advocates of AYR calving if I remember correctly?
Bound to get bad calvings doing this as can't feed them according to proximity to calving.
livestock 1
Member
The muck heaps I see here now look small heaped up with a telehandler
The biggest muck heaps I’ve ever seen as a kid weren’t actually that big they just looked big because they were built with a wheelbarrow
livestock 1
Member
We sort them into different batches so can feed them as we wantI agree.
@livestock 1 and @Anymulewilldo are advocates of AYR calving if I remember correctly?
Bound to get bad calvings doing this as can't feed them according to proximity to calving.
Ad-lib silage is fine for incalf cows if it’s too hot they get some straw
The ones near to calving only get silage unless too fat
livestock 1
Member
I suppose it depends on the silage quality
livestock 1
Member
There’s a lot of focus on the system here due to the type of cow we are on about
It’s worth remembering that the other breeds are still better looked at and attended to at calving
Just because they are a easy type breed doesn’t mean there’s not problems
I try to keep an eye on what’s calving here I have some Dairy crosses some Simmental’s some Angus and I watch them all the same
Fairly important to keep the calves alive the way things are
It’s worth remembering that the other breeds are still better looked at and attended to at calving
Just because they are a easy type breed doesn’t mean there’s not problems
I try to keep an eye on what’s calving here I have some Dairy crosses some Simmental’s some Angus and I watch them all the same
Fairly important to keep the calves alive the way things are
- Location
- North of Perth
A live calf is the main thing.
- Location
- North of Perth
Not as bad as you might think.juSt requires a bit of management.I agree.
@livestock 1 and @Anymulewilldo are advocates of AYR calving if I remember correctly?
Bound to get bad calvings doing this as can't feed them according to proximity to calving.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
I was a farm sale years ago looking at calf creeps , it had been a very large herd of ped lim
cows , the creeps were all white inside , on asked a fella whats the white stuff , he laughed and said its the milk powder , they creep fed the calves milk powder !! I couldn’t get over it !
cows , the creeps were all white inside , on asked a fella whats the white stuff , he laughed and said its the milk powder , they creep fed the calves milk powder !! I couldn’t get over it !
- Location
- North Suffolk
Our Vets wrote about this in his newsletter back when we had beast from the east 2 (don't usually get cold like that down here) as people had a suddenly had a couple of monster calves then back to normal. From memory some study in America put it down to the cow maintaining her core temperature at a higher rate to combat the cold which led to the calf growing quicker at the late stage of pregnancy. All to do with the stage of pregnancy when the cold hits. We did have a couple, one was fine but cow down for 6 weeks. One was that big he could never stand up himself, never seen anything like it. He picked something up and in the end had him shot. No difference in breeding or feeding to other years and it was these 2 one after the other and then everyone else was normal so must have been the cold
livestock 1
Member
Yes we had similar experiences
Almost identical
I’m maybe not going mad imagining these things then!
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Most of our spring calving cows are outside till end of January. Some mornings covered in ice. Start calving mid to late February.
Don't think extreme cold affects calf size at all.
Don't think extreme cold affects calf size at all.