By Gavin Hill

With a long protracted winter, many farmers will have found that cows are going to the bull leaner than in previous years and that time is needed to get these cows back into condition to start ovulating for successful mating.

For some, grass is currently growing in abundance, but some areas in the east of the country have had little if any rain. Results in the autumn could therefore enforce many views that fewer cows will actually hold to the bull and scan in calf. If so a decision should be made to scan early and sell/cull barren cows as soon as possible to allow only the productive part of the herd to go through the winter.

Spring 2018 saw many industry reports highlighting bare forage cupboards. No longer is there back up forage available and this summer will be a test to get the forage stock levels back up. So will we face lower forage levels this year? So far good dry crops of silage have been taken lately but with notable lower yields.

Other factors requiring consideration:

• Check bulls are working and change them round if after 21 days, high numbers of cows are coming back in heat. Do not wait as often for these cows, it can be too late to be served and so an option is to always routinely swap bulls round every 21 days.

• Ensure back up bull power is always available on the farm.

• Feed 1-2kg concentrates through the bulling period and after for a few weeks to boost energy levels. Priority should be given to cows rearing twins, first and second calvers along with those that have had a difficult calving.

• If maintaining numbers then consider maximising the number of heifers put to the bull this summer.

• PD breeding females early and cull barren cows as soon as possible.

• The objective must be to minimise the amount of mouths taken through next winter. For growing/finishing animals this means feeding them hard eg with creep or trough feeding so they can be sold as early as possible in the autumn.

Feed shortage:

• Cut silage/hay on time. Delaying will produce more bulk but less energy and protein ie animal feed days per hectare as well as delaying the availability of aftermath grazing.

• Leave at least a 4cm stubble to avoid reducing silage quality from stemy, dead material and reducing fermentation quality and hence intake. A 4-6cm stubble will regrow much more rapidly increasing the amount of aftermath and when it is ready to be grazed/cut.

• Apply fertiliser as soon as possible after cutting .

• Harvest cereals early as moist grain (25-35% moisture) and sow a fodder catch crop as early as possible. Ideally chose a crop which can be grazed two or three times over the winter if a back fence is used.

• Straw will again by scarce and expensive. If bedding on straw consider putting in a scraped feed stance.