John Pringle March/April Update 2024
Vaccines & minerals
- Scour vaccines were crucial this spring
- Have you spread lime? Do you need to bolus cows pre breeding?
- If applicable - Lepto vaccine is also due at least 4 weeks pre breeding
Fertiliser plans
- Importance of early Nitrogen seen this year
- Get 30 units of N per acre out
- Follow every 3-4 weeks with 20 – 25 units per acre
- You cannot grow enough grass this year
New hedgerow management
- Ensure to fence off all your hedgerows and trees
- Weed control is key to success
- You don’t have to cut to one inch
Summary
Spring 2024 has been long and hard, and has tested the resolve of most farmers in Ireland. Here in the southeast we are used to much shorter winters and even though I thought I had a reserve, I was very tight. I won’t be making that mistake again.
I was thankful for my vaccination programme for preventing scours in the calves. I vaccinate for Rotavirus, Coronavirus and E.Coli. With the long spring, late turn out and shortage of straw, I only had a small scrape with tow calves in late April. I gave them an electrolyte as soon as I saw them dull and they pulled out of it okay, they
The breeding season is due to kick off on the 10th of May, I have the bulls out “limbering up”. I fed the cows 1.5kgs of concentrate when inside, so as they would not lose condition, it has paid off as they are bulling strong. I plan to bolus them now as I have applied lime recently and am worried about copper lock up.
Fertiliser is out on grazing ground 20 units of N as pro urea and a half bag of 18-20-0 per acre to kick growth off.
Silage ground was grazed with sheep and closed. It has got 2,500 gals of slurry per acre to be followed by a bag of urea (46%) and cut late May.
Hedges and trees have been planted and fenced, a lot of hard work in a hard spring.
Breeding
Calving season has officially come to an end on the last days of April. With three sets of twins we have we have 38 mature cows and 9 first calvers with 49 calves at foot. A good calving season by all accounts.
The thoughts now turn to the breeding season, which will start on the 10th of May. With the late spring, I feed 1.5kgs of meal to the cows to keep them in good condition. For the sake of two tonnes of meal, I don’t want my calving date to slip. The cows are in good condition and some were bulling before turn out.
Figure: Cow and calf lying down
The yearling heifers went out to grass in Mid-March, mainly as I am tight on space in the sheds, but also to save on silage and get the grazing rotation started. Despite the challenging conditions, they have performed well as they were not forced to graze out.
The two bulls are out too, get limbered up for the season ahead.
I am a bull beef finisher and I keep all my own replacements, so my breeding decisions are based on this. I want a heavy bull, grading U, ~390kgs at <16 months, I want a heifer that is not too big, has milk and will reach target weights to be 420kg at 15months to bull and calve at 24 months, So I tend to look for dual purpose bulls. Currently the overall herd in +18Kg on carcass, +8.2 on milk and -0.02 days on daughter calving interval.
I have two bulls my simmental bull has a replacement index of €137, a terminal index of €91, he is 27.7kg of carcass and 1.46 on conformation and 10.70kg on milk, while he is -0.33 days on daughter calving.
My limousin bull is €166 on replacement, €140 on terminal, 28.6Kg on carcass weight, 2.45 on conformation, 6.8kg on milk and +1.76 days on daughter calving. He is my youngest bull and I bought him to get more conformation in the cows and bring down their size.
I will use the LM bull on the simmental cows and the SI bull on the limousin type cows. The Lm bull is just over two and this is his first breeding season, so I will be keeping a very close eye on him to see he is actually mating the cows and then 17 days later I will be watching for repeats..
The cows are in good condition, some are already bulling and I will keep them on good grass, so I don’t think there will be a need for a synchronisation programme for me.
Figure: Calf suckling cow
Figure: Cows and alves at grass
Animal Health
The spring has been long a tough in Wicklow this year, and I learned a few things, one being the value of scour vaccines. In 2018 I ran into big problems with scour and since then I have been vaccinating against Rota, corona and E.coli and I have to say this year, it has been a blessing. I know of other farmers who have had a horror of a spring dripping calves who normally would have been fine, but the late turn out, combined with straw shortages and perhaps being left with poorer quality silage by the end, they have paid the price. Its precise vaccine and must be given 3-12 weeks before calving, it’s a one shot programme.
I also vaccinate for IBR a month before the breeding season, this reduces the spread of the virus and again reduces disease pressure. Vaccines pre calving are all great, but you do have to ensure the calf gets a good suck, at least 2 litres within 2 hours. I feed a good quality pre calving mineral at a rate of 120 grams per head per day for 6 weeks pre calving and have found that the calves are lively, get up and suck within half an hour and are as healthy as snipes.
I don’t give any other vaccines as calves, but vaccinate pre weaning with bovipast.
I have no issue Leptospirosis on my farm and have a closed herd, so I am not vaccinating for it.
Figure: Cows and calves at grass
Figure: Cows and sheep at grass
Grassland
The second big learning I took from this spring is the importance of my mid-February application of nitrogen, it really sets up the grass for the year and it taking longer for growth rates to kick off this year.
For now, I have applied 20 units of nitrogen in the form of pro urea and a half bag of 18-20-0 per acre on my grazing ground. My soil samples came back very low in Phosphorous so I have the allowance in my nutrient management plan.
As for silage ground, with the sheep I have all the silage ground grazed and it has received approximately 2,500 gallon of slurry per acre with my low emission slurry tanker. I will top it up with a bag of pro urea 46%.
Figure: Silage fields are now closed
I will have to graze 3-4 acres if silage ground as the first paddocks won’t be strong enough by the time I finish grazing all the fields. But the weather is dry now, the dry matter in the grass is increasing, they will slow down moving through the grass. My plan is to close more area than normal for second cut as I don’t want to be as tight next winter for silage. I’ll just have to apply more fertiliser to the grazing ground, push it harder this year to allow me close to more second cut.
I also sowed a field of rye last autumn, the plan was to get a graze on it with the sheep and then cut it in May for silage. However the day after it went in, it started to rain and has hardly stopped since. So there was no grazing and very little tillering. The plan now is to cut it in two weeks – early May and to reseed.
Figure: Rye crop
I have reduced the number of groups by grazing the sheep and cows together. I also have the replacement heifers in with the cows. The heifers I am not breeding are in with the hoggets’. The less groups I have the easier it is to manage the grass.
Figure: Stock at grass
Biodiversity
Again it has been a busy spring. 800m of hedgerows have been planted along with 150 native trees as per my acres plan. They had to be sowed and then fenced. With the sheep, there is a lot of extra work in the fencing but my father Billy has been a great help. We used the sheep’s wool as a weed barrier and it has worked really well. We do not trim them back to an inch above the ground but will lay, the same as our REPS hedges
My plan is to have all my fields bounded on three sides by hedgerows, for shelter and also to act as nature corridors for wildlife.
Figure: Trees planted