Winter housing

[Hfd Cattle]

Just asked a question on fodder thread but starting it here .
Basically ... got about 90 cows , 130 ish youngstock and 60 ish older stores . Older stores will be going into a shed at another farm .
I can house all the young stock and about 50 cows .
Or I can outwinter all the youngstock and house all the cows .
Youngstock are ATM 8 to 10 mths
The cows that I would outwinter would calve around April/ May time .
The field they will be outwintered on will carry quite well and will be ploughed up in spring .
Any thoughts .
I'm not keen to be selling the youngstock and the farm where the older ones are going doesn't want cows or weanlings .

 

[Will 1594]

Question for you all ,what are tb complications ,or any other to bring cattle east to winter like they used too ,
Cheaper to haul stock ,than feed and straw , ?
Can house or graze cash crop ,on light sheltered fields ,bring in when too wet or miserable ,

 

[egbert]

My own experiences....
We generally outwinter 80-90% of the suckler cows - housing them pretty much knocks out any chance of breakeven return, unless they're rearing a late calf which can be creep fed, recovering the cost of housing mum.
Most cows now at round feeders on discreet concrete pads.
Each round feeders worth will trash 1-2-3 acres of ground, which rolls flat enough to disguise the following spring. It's free draining ground but....

We house almost all of the youngstock, from weaned calves through to 2 year old.
Leaving youngstock outdoors on the main holding - very high rainfall exposed hill ground- knocks the carp out of them. There are losses.

We can, however, leave youngstock , thinly stocked, outwintered on better off lying ground. Suits galloways very well, with steers fattening on the occasional round bale and a good view. Likewise replacement SD heifers, which come home to bull at 24 months
The timescale doesn't suit the impatient, but beyond land value, the costs are very very low.

Honestly crunching the numbers put housing just a weanling at circa £170-180/head from Nov/Dec through to April.

 

[egbert]

Question for you all ,what are tb complications ,or any other to bring cattle east to winter like they used too ,
Cheaper to haul stock ,than feed and straw , ?
Can house or graze cash crop ,on light sheltered fields ,bring in when too wet or miserable ,

gotta be TB tested to move (each way) over 10 miles in any circumstance, and the risks of them ending up in the 'wrong place' need to be factored.

 

[Treg]

How much grass have you got in front of them?
I would out winter the young stock, strip graze them or if multiple fields rotational paddock graze them , which ever way keep them moving with forage in front of them & they'll do well .

 

[livestock 1]

I would outwinter the cows. Make sure they are fluke and wormed and high energy is your friend. Beet, molasses etc especially as they get closer to calving
Put any lean ones in

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If anyone can outwinter or graze late this year then this is the year, you can't bed cows on straw at the price its at

 

[Skintagain]

If anyone can outwinter or graze late this year then this is the year, you can't bed cows on straw at the price its at

There’s going to be some black fields this year

 

[Derrick Hughes]

There’s going to be some black fields this year

Dry open Autumn is what's needed -better a bit dirty outside than lying dirty in

 

[Werzle]

Alot depends on the winter. Ground will carry youngstock better but dont expect them to be fit to sell for big money in the spring. Many cattle would winter out if fed well and have access to some sort of shelter(high hedge ,wood etc) on the worse weather days, Expect a few visits from animal health or the rspca if they are wintering nr a footpath.

 

[livestock 1]

Alot depends on the winter. Ground will carry youngstock better but dont expect them to be fit to sell for big money in the spring. Many cattle would winter out if fed well and have access to some sort of shelter(high hedge ,wood etc) on the worse weather days, Expect a few visits from animal health or the rspca if they are wintering nr a footpath.

This is the trouble. We used to winter a lot of cattle outside which were fine on an old railway with plenty of dry lying plenty of hard stand for feeding and woodland for shelter. Maybe not so fashionable to be doing here now not in big numbers anyway.

 

[Skintagain]

This is the trouble. We used to winter a lot of cattle outside which were fine on an old railway with plenty of dry lying plenty of hard stand for feeding and woodland for shelter. Maybe not so fashionable to be doing here now not in big numbers anyway.

When subs go people might have to get used to such sights

 

[Skintagain]

Dry open Autumn is what's needed -better a bit dirty outside than lying dirty in

It’s been lovely this last fortnight fields are dry but it looks to be turning mid week onwards.

 

[livestock 1]

When subs go people might have to get used to such sights

Yes I agree. Jo public has plenty to say about a few clarts. Plenty of fellow farmers or even ex farmers do too. Sometimes they are worse. ‘Mine are all inside why should he get away with having some out and a mess going’
What a carry on a bit like the bale of silage in the ring in the beet field that never gets touched, for the benefit of the general public

 

[Hfd Cattle]

I would outwinter the cows. Make sure they are fluke and wormed and high energy is your friend. Beet, molasses etc especially as they get closer to calving
Put any lean ones in

That's what I'm favouring. We use a huge amount of beet during winter and cows are adlib on molasses. Got plenty of shelterunder trees etc . Most are first and second calvers so got age on their side . Hopefully by mid Oct all cows older than 2015 will be gone (28 of them) and that will then leave us with the numbers quoted earlier.
As quoted by @Werzle footpaths and 'do good Dora's' are our biggest problem .

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Question for you all ,what are tb complications ,or any other to bring cattle east to winter like they used too ,
Cheaper to haul stock ,than feed and straw , ?
Can house or graze cash crop ,on light sheltered fields ,bring in when too wet or miserable ,

Got caught with TB one year doing that . We tested and hauled them 26 miles away in Nov re-tested them to bring back and 2 went down with TB . It was a nightmare for them and us .

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Alot depends on the winter. Ground will carry youngstock better but dont expect them to be fit to sell for big money in the spring. Many cattle would winter out if fed well and have access to some sort of shelter(high hedge ,wood etc) on the worse weather days, Expect a few visits from animal health or the rspca if they are wintering nr a footpath.

We gat them phone calls and visits regularly ! The trouble with bordering a city . AH and RSPCA are very good they get more fed up with it than we do !

 

[Hfd Cattle]

How much grass have you got in front of them?
I would out winter the young stock, strip graze them or if multiple fields rotational paddock graze them , which ever way keep them moving with forage in front of them & they'll do well .

There's will be no grass in front of them of any quantity just bare fields waiting to be ploughed up after winter . They will have about 35 acre site to run on plus 5 acres of woodland etc .

 

[livestock 1]

That's what I'm favouring. We use a huge amount of beet during winter and cows are adlib on molasses. Got plenty of shelterunder trees etc . Most are first and second calvers so got age on their side . Hopefully by mid Oct all cows older than 2015 will be gone (28 of them) and that will then leave us with the numbers quoted earlier.
As quoted by @Werzle footpaths and 'do good Dora's' are our biggest problem .

Any cattle outside here would need fluke dose twice through the winter. Anything that looks lean or is old I would shed off and put inside. As you said young cows with a bit of go off them will be fine.
Probably less pneumonia if you had the Young stock out but they will look crap compared to being in and won’t stand the weather as well.
Im in a similar position here bought some more cows and heifers into the herd. We have some to go but will need pd’d and scanned to see what’s what. I did this last year with a few that had lost time and only one was empty. My idea is to leave some of the younger end out incalf heifers and such like.
Straw is the worry so will feed a few outside in the next month or three which I usually don’t do. I have 100 bales of over year dry silage which didn’t get lead back to use last winter so I can bed a few up with that also have 300 bales of rushy stuff which I usually graze can be used for bedding and feed. Same as usual just fiddle about to make the job work

 

[Jdunn55]

Just asked a question on fodder thread but starting it here .
Basically ... got about 90 cows , 130 ish youngstock and 60 ish older stores . Older stores will be going into a shed at another farm .
I can house all the young stock and about 50 cows .
Or I can outwinter all the youngstock and house all the cows .
Youngstock are ATM 8 to 10 mths
The cows that I would outwinter would calve around April/ May time .
The field they will be outwintered on will carry quite well and will be ploughed up in spring .
Any thoughts .
I'm not keen to be selling the youngstock and the farm where the older ones are going doesn't want cows or weanlings .

I havent read all the replies, but my honest thoughts would be keep everything out as long as you can (straw is expensive!) But, house all your youngstock when it turns wet. They need to grow and are going to struggle if it's a wet cold winter and therefore wont grow and will forever be behind.

Keep as many cows out as possible. But house any thinner cows, any scanned with twins, older cows, early calvers etc
You may not need to house 40 of them, any extras you can keep out is a saving!

I'm planning on out wintering all my spring calvers this year. I've never done it before but am looking for cost saving measures (and that's after buying all my straw in the spring for £85/t which I'm quite pleased with considering current prices!)