The beginning of the autumn-calving season is fast approaching on dairy farms. Before the season kicks-off, it is important to ensure that you have all the supplies that you require.
This will allow you to have a more successful calving season and ensure that nothing is forgotten.
Autumn-calving
Ensure that your calving shed and calf shed is ready. By now the shed should have been cleaned out and disinfectant spread to reduce the amount of bacteria present.
If you had issues with a specific disease last year, a disinfectant designed to treat that bacteria should be used.
It is also important to ensure that all the calving rearing equipment, such as drinkers and troughs, are disinfected and are in working order.
You should also ensure that your calving jack is working properly, along with other calving equipment such as gates. Calving is a busy time on farms, during the last calving season something could of been easily broken or damaged and forgotten about.
Supplies
To ensure that your calving season is successful, you should make sure that you have the following supplies on your farm:
- Iodine – Teagasc recommends approximately 10-15ml per naval;
- Calving jack ropes;
- Calf tags;
- Calf feeder teats;
- Nitrile gloves;
- Lubrication;
- Calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) – for any milk fever or grass tetany cases;
- Mastitis tubes;
- Tape, leg bands or spray paint – or whatever is your preferred method of marking cows;
- Stomach tube and/or bottle – Teagasc recommends checking that the bag is not leaking and the tube itself isn’t chewed, as this can cause oesophageal damage;
- Electrolytes;
- Disinfectant for housing facilities;
- Bags or containers for storing colostrum.
Having these supplies on hand will make the calving season run much smoother.