spring calving

[som farmer]

as we are new to calving a 'proper' spring herd, rather than a few. We have had a s##t summer, drought = no grass, which means we have had to feed, that's farming. But, we have now got loads of grass, and hybrid rape, this has caused a big problem, in so much, as the b#####'s won't move, its taking an extra hour + to milk them, even getting them in is slow, except when they know there is ration there. We don't start calving until end feb, so we do need a half sensible milk cheque, we now have a difference of opinion, I think we should either stop buffer, currently 8kg w/crop, 5 maize, 2 hay + urea, till they are hungry, and will want to move to next feed, cut back to 10kg or just put hay out, the dung is pretty solid, but fat is 5.27 and protien is 4.1. Son asks cake rep, keep feeding, but less buffer, and more higher protien cake, nutritionist says not enough protien to speed the ration through gut, therefore they are allways full - feed more protien. As there are a lot of young hfrs, that are down to 13/14 litres, and all the cows look well, I think they have just got lazy, putting weight on, and not really grazing, and need to be made to forage again, as they have had to have a buffer since june, thoughts please, but no mention of Brexit !!!!!!

 

[Manney]

Mine have gone on go slow. They do it this time every year but seem to be worse this year to the point when we hit 1st Nov I'm going to milk them once a day as they dont want to move at afternoon milkings.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Welcome to spring calving, they always get slow at this time of year.

Buy one of these and let them find their own way in at their own pace. There's no reason you shouldn't still be grazing to a decent residual with ground conditions still reasonable.

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[jimmer]

I'm no expert, it's new to me too, mine are on grazing during day, and self feed grass silage at night, with 3 ring feeders for top grabs, 4kg of cheapo 14% cake per day
April and May calvers 17L, 5.3fat 3.8 pro

I'd say you or your son or both,, are still to fully shake off the higher input mentality
Although I appreciate you've had a hard summer

 

[sidjon]

Residues here are still good, cows on 5kg of maize meal plus grass.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Residues here are still good, cows on 5kg of maize meal plus grass.View attachment 839960

Still no silage?

Mine are on 6 round bales and one straw chopper full of WC which I think is very roughly 5kg DM / head.

 

[sidjon]

Still no silage?

Mine are on 6 round bales and one straw chopper full of WC which I think is very roughly 5kg DM / head.

Ground too wet to feed out without damaging pasture to much and stocking rate has dropped from tb, so have plenty of grass in front of them not to start on my under filled silage clamps

 

[jimmer]

 

[jimmer]

No river too deep, or road too main

 

[sidjon]

You milking blues now?

 

[jimmer]

You milking blues now?

 

[frederick]

Got to seriously question your nutritionist.
More protein. If you have surplus grass feed more grass more protein.
If you are short of forage because of the summer feed more grass.
If the cows are full and slow feed less buffer. If you've good grass only buffer should be 16% cake.

 

[In the pit]

12% high starch cake here
You don't need any higher when grazing because plenty of protein in grass
You need to cut buffer down and concentrate on grazing first and foremost

 

[Beef farmer]

Residues here are still good, cows on 5kg of maize meal plus grass.View attachment 839960

Maize meal in parlour?

 

[Beef farmer]

If youve loads of grass, stop the buffer tomorrow. 4kgs wheat gluten and grazed grass, get your platform in order else it will haunt you in feb/march.

 

[sidjon]

Maize meal in parlour?

Yes, the biggest downside of self feeding for us is the cows have to be housed to use it and don't have any feed troughs for silage on shoulders if whether is sh!t, so extra feed has to go into shed for milking.

 

[Martyn]

Loads of grass protein about, we are feeding 2kg of 16% parlour cake, and 3kg of crimp oats alongside 15kg of grass silage at night and major protien intake with good day grazing, averaging 27l autumn calving

 

[Devon lad]

Yes, the biggest downside of self feeding for us is the cows have to be housed to use it and don't have any feed troughs for silage on shoulders if whether is sh!t, so extra feed has to go into shed for milking.

Where do you get your maize meal from please?

 

[som farmer]

If youve loads of grass, stop the buffer tomorrow. 4kgs wheat gluten and grazed grass, get your platform in order else it will haunt you in feb/march.

having just reseeded 60 acres, concentrates the grass to a smaller area, but have plenty 28acres of rape, I think the lush grass we have now, should be fairly high in protien, its the first real growth since may, the rape should be alright for protien, I reckon they are stuffed, need to be woken up again. Our few autumn calvers, are in, mainly because they weren't sellable ! anything else a bit dicky, or milking well, in as well, on a decent ration, interestingly, the spr calvers have not reacted at all, to a proper ration, we still need a milk cheque, albeit a lot smaller, we are a bit wary of cutting back food to much.
Just our luck to choose this year to swap ! driest I can remember for a long time, never counted on leys just dying on us, but that's farming.

 

[Ducati899]

This year had nothing on last year for being dry here