Cows are still running for cover

BAD weather has been a constant theme of this column for the last nine months and sadly it’s no different today.

Instead of lying in the shady sunshine of May last week, cows and cattle were running for cover to hedges and trees. We’ve gotten some fine days, but we need a 10-day spell of warm, dry weather.

The milking cows went out by day on April 19 and went out full-time on May 5, two weeks later than normal.

Farm cover is at 1070 kgDM/Ha. The cover/LU is at 233 kgDM. The stocking rate is 4.59LU/ha. There are a couple of paddocks with heavy covers 1800/1900 kgDM/Ha. I will have to make a decision this week whether to skip them and bale them.

All paddocks on the milking platform have now received 94 units/ac of urea and pasture sward plus sulphur.

Grass has certainly grown in the last two weeks. The only downside is that grazing conditions are far from ideal. For the first week when the cows went out the paddocks were strip fenced.

Now cows are being turned into paddocks for three or four grazings. Cows are settling well despite the weather.

The 75 cows are producing 27.3litres at 4.01pc butter fat, 3.19pc protein, giving 2.1kg milk solids per cow per day, TBC 12000, SCC 31, Therm. 700. Cows are getting 4kgs of a 16pc protein nut. I put the thermoduric rise down to the wet weather and soft conditions in paddocks.

Cows in heat and the teaser bull leave their mark in paddocks also. Breeding began on April 16. In the first three weeks there were 65 inseminated including 24 heifers. I picked up a lot of the heifers naturally. The last seven heifers got an injection of estrumate and they all showed heat within three days.

The AI service is working well with the technician coming in the morning and evening. I text him to tell him how many and when.

Cows are showing very strong heats and the teaser bull is working very well. The chinball is topped up with paint twice a week. I am getting 10 cows scanned to check them as they haven’t shown heat yet.

All the heifers that were served went to an out-farm. I put the Hereford bull with them. There are eight more heifers that will be served next month. There are four cows left to calve.

This bad weather doesn’t agree with young bulls. I have eight of them; they were outdoors but I had to bring them back indoors as they were doing damage to the ground.

I have been told they need warm weather and no distractions such as heifers for them to settle.

The silage ground was all sown on April 19. I hired in a contractor and all was spread in three hours.

At €30/tonne for spreading it was money well spent as the job was completed in a lot less time than if I had been doing it.