Weather
The last week has been a bit of a reality check when it comes to the weather, with parts of the country getting up to 70mm of rain in the last seven days which is four to five times normal. Dry land was able to take the rain, in the main, but heavy land is wet.
Probably of greater significance for many was the reduction in grass growth rates due to colder weather. Growth rates went from being in the 60s to the 30s and after 10 days of lower growth rates, grass is beginning to get tight on many farms.
Where the option exists the first choice will be to go back in grazing fields that were intended for short-term silage, that is surplus grass rather than main first-cut.
It is sensible to use what grass is on the farm first rather than using supplements.
The next option is to graze some of the area that was intended for first-cut silage. Whether this is possible depends on the grass covers. At this stage it’s sure to be higher than desired, but what some farmers will do is alternate it between normal covers at day and heavy covers at night. Growth rates are set to improve by the weekend so the pinch will hopefully be shortlived.
Sexed semen
Remember the importance of careful handling of sexed semen straws. This is equally important for both DIY AI users and for AI technicians. It’s a different product to conventional semen which can tolerate some degree of rough handling, but sexed semen cannot.
Only one or two straws should be taken out of the flask at a time, thawed at the correct temperature of 35°C to 37°C for 45 seconds and loaded into pre-warmed AI guns and kept warm until used.
DIY AI operators should be fully refreshed on the protocols before starting another season and it’s a good idea to go on a refresher course to make sure it’s being done right.
If the AI technician only comes once a day, then using sexed semen will be limited to only those cows that have been in heat for 14 to 20 hours prior to insemination. If the AI technician arrives at 9am, that means any cow bulling since after 7pm the evening before cannot get sexed semen and must either get conventional dairy AI if she is high-EBI, or beef AI if she is low-EBI.
Calves
Weaned calves should be at grass but poor weather over the last week may have understandably deterred farmers from putting them out. If off milk but still in the shed, they will need ad-lib meal and access to roughage such as hay or straw.
Silage will have a lot more nutrition than straw and weaned calves will take to it well, but the priority should be to get them out to grass as soon as possible.
I would keep meal in the diet at around 1kg/hd/day for at least a few weeks after turnout to help them transition on to an all-grass diet. Some farmers continue to feed a bit of straw when at grass to add some long fibre to the diet.
Health wise, don’t forget they need two shots of black leg vaccine before going to grass.
SHARING OPTIONS