Warmer weather puts spring in step
As I write this we are in our 4th day of fine weather in a row, which has literally put a ‘spring’ into farmers’ steps and is a welcome respite from the difficult weather that we have experienced to date.
As always I see a number of farms that have coped well with the adverse conditions and some that have not.
It is worthwhile to review what has worked and what has not this winter while it is fresh in your mind to see if any lessons have been learnt about how best to cope
‘‘It is worthwhile to review what has worked and what has not this winter.’’
next season and how management decisions have affected the start to this lactation.
If I think back to last season, we also had a wet start to the calving season and the farm that had been set up the best at the start of calving closely resembled a golf course when I next saw it.
This was the result of the farmer speeding up the rotation to avoid making a mess and lead to a deficit on farm that lasted for some time compromising milk production and increasing costs with some purchased feed required to ensure cows were adequately fed leading into mating.
The review that came out of that situation dealt with standing off options in times of wet weather and the importance of sticking to rotation plans.
This season showed that even with a wetter start that same farm was well set up with good levels of pasture and no requirement for any purchased feed.
It is possible that your own business may show as much improvement as this one and time spent on a review is time well spent.
Also try and arrange time off for yourselves as a reward for the hard work to date and to freshen up before the next challenge.
Remember to keep focusing on young stock management as there are no shortcuts to good calf rearing and these animals are the future of your herd.
This time of the season is also the start of decisions regarding mating and while pre mating tail painting should be underway on most farms, I will deal with mating in my next column.
In the meantime keep monitoring the pasture cover as that will give the ability to ‘tweak’ the rotation length and allow the milking cows to fully utilise the spring pasture.
-James Thomas, FarmWise Consultant