While farms in some parts of the country have managed to get cattle out to grass, the reality is that grazing still remains unworkable in many parts around the country, and sucklers and beef cattle are still housed.
In some cases, letting smaller batches of lighter cattle out to graze a large area is an option, but for the cattle that remain housed, winter feeding will have to continue.
Where fodder supplies are not an issue, feeding sucklers and beef cattle can continue as per the usual arrangements on farms.
On suckler farms with first calvers still housed, these should be top priority. They are still growing and will need to get back in calf timely this year. All first calvers should get 1-2kg meal pre turnout regardless of silage quality, according to Teagasc.
Calved suckler cows should be let out as soon as possible. If turning them out is not an option, the Teagasc advice is to feed 2kg concentrates/head/day along with ad-lib silage.
The only scenario where a farm can get away without feeding meal to these cows, is where good quality silage is available and cows are in good order and will be getting out to grass within a month of calving.
Where farmers have cows that are still yet to calve, they should avoid making big changes to their feeding in the three weeks pre-calving.
If silage quality is very poor, supplementation of 2kg meal/day may be necessary. A good pre-calver mineral is also essential for cows in advance of calving.
Concentrate feed should be taken out of weanling and store cattle diets pre turnout to maximise compensatory growth unless silage quality is very poor or silage is running out, according to Teagasc.
What to do if silage is running out?
Farmers who are approaching the last bales or facing the back of the silage pit have a number of options available.
According to Teagasc, where fodder is scarce, it will probably mean using a combination of the options, weigh up the economics and see what’s feasible for the farm considering labour, facilities and finance available.
Some of the options include:
- Have you any option to get even a small number of stock out to the driest part of the farm?;
- Buy in silage/hay;
- Sell surplus stock such as empty cows or forward stores;
- Stretch out remaining fodder supplies by feeding extra meal or moving finishing stock onto ad-lib meal feeding.
Cattle other than finishing stock can be restricted to 40% of their fodder requirement by supplementing with extra concentrates.
On most farms, it can be difficult to weigh silage. For simplicity, it may be easier to halve the number of grabs/bales being fed with extra meal being fed.
Another handy rule of thumb according to Teagasc is a 600kg round bale will comfortably feed 20 cows being fed 2kg of concentrate/head/day.