Now that your in-calf heifers are housed, there are a number of jobs that can be completed with them over the next few weeks.
Further bad weather has forced anyone who is still grazing to house their cows and young stock for the final time this year.
Your in-calf heifers will be joining the milking herd in a few months time, so now is also a good opportunity to give them a final once-over.
In-calf heifers
It is important that you weigh your in-calf heifers to ensure they are on target to calve down at the correct weight.
This is particularly important for heifers that have now returned from contract-rearing farms.
If heifers are calving down below target weight, this may have an impact on their performance and fertility.
Heifers that are at the correct weight ahead of calving need to be fed high-quality silage ad-lib, to ensure they continue to grow.
Heifers that you determine to be behind target, should be penned separately and offered concentrates. These heifers can be fed concentrates for up to six weeks prior to calving.
Avoid overcrowding in pens, and ensure that there is adequate feed space available for the number of animals in the pen.
Continue to monitor these heifers over the coming weeks, to ensure that any issues that may develop are detected early, so that they can be treated quickly.
Parlour training
With your in-calf heifers now being housed, now is a good time to begin the process of training them into the milking parlour.
Calving is a stressful time for a heifer, introducing them to a new experience will only increase stress levels.
Introducing your heifers to the parlour will ensure it is not a completely new experience to these heifers, once they calve.
You can begin by allowing heifers to access the collecting yard with the front and back gate to the parlour open.
This allows the heifers to move through the parlour themselves. You can then close the front gate and offer heifers concentrates.
Once the heifers are comfortable in the parlour, you can start the machine and allow the heifers to become familiar with the noise in the parlour.
It is important not to rush the process and allow for this to happen over a number of weeks, to ensure that it is a positive experience for them.
Parasites
Shortly after housing is also a good time to treat animals for any possible parasite burdens that may be affecting them, such as stomach worms, lungworms and fluke.
Animals cannot pick up a new parasite infection when housed, so reducing the burden on these animals will ensure that performance is not affected.
Dung samples should be taken to determine if there is a parasite burden, if there is no burden heifers should not be treated for parasites.
Treating heifers that do not have a parasite burden is wasteful, expensive and aiding anti-parasitic resistance.