I need to hold back five pens of cattle to give them a chance

TURNOUT of stock is still ongoing on a daily basis, but after assessing the grass cover and the need to replenish silage stocks for next year I have made the decision to leave in five pens of forward store cattle in a bid to have them factory fit by mid-June.

This batch of cattle includes both bullocks and heifers and would have huge demand on grass if turned out. They are on a diet of 8kgs of a high maize ration with some straw and round bales of silage. I will increase the meal over the next two weeks until they are on an adlib diet.

Once the sheds heat up in May and they are comfortable on the diet they seem to pile on the weight. I have tried this for the last number of years and it has worked out well, except other years it was with young bulls. It also makes greater use of the sheds.

The biggest problem I find is to have enough fat cover on the bullocks. The heifers don’t seem to be a problem once they are on adlib meal. Hopefully they will be ready for the peak of the beef price before the onset of grass cattle. These cattle would also be hard on the land if the weather is poor during the summer.

The suckler cows have been let out in small groups of between five and 10 in different fields. They will be put together into two larger groups before breeding. With low grass covers and poor grazing conditions, I decided it would be easier to control them in smaller groups.

Calves were also dehorned in small groups and left to settle. The cows have access to high mag buckets and are on 2kg on meal a day in a bid to maintain body condition on them and slow down grass demand. On turnout all cattle from weanlings to cows are injected with copper as the farm has a copper deficiency.

The cows are given 6mls and the weanlings 4mls. There seems to be a great response to it and it is not too expensive. The younger stocks’ hair coat

THE FERTILISER SPREADER WAS BACK IN ACTION LAST WEEK IN A BID TO GET THE GRASS GROWING