A Teagasc vet has said that there is no guarantee that the number of cows calving at night will reduce if farmers opt to feed cows late in the evening.
With spring-calving season now in full swing on both dairy and suckler farms across Ireland, and labour availability scarce in many cases on farms, farmers will be looking at ways of reducing the work load during night-time on farms where cows are calving.
Some farmers opt to feed cows at night or late in the evening, and while some research has shown this can reduce the number of cows calving during the night, Teagasc vet John Donlon has said: “The scientific literature on it isn’t particularly conclusive”.
Speaking on a recent episode of Teagasc’s ‘The Beef Edge’ podcast, the Teagasc veterinary professional said that “some work has found that it [night-time feeding] is associated with more calvings during the day, but others haven’t found it”.
He explained that at Teagasc Grange, researchers have looked at the distribution of calving and said: “It’s kind of equally distributed across the day, there’s no particular peaks or troughs.”
The vet advised that if farmers are thinking of implementing night-time feeding “the key thing to remember is, you have to have adequate feed space.
“If you don’t have enough feed space, restricting feed for cows coming into late pregnancy isn’t advisable at all, these cows need to be able to eat when they want to eat – especially if we’re only feeding them at night.
“If we don’t have enough feed space, there’s a chance that maybe some of the more timid cows might not be eating enough, so you’d want to be very careful about the implementation of night-time feeding if you are going to try it.”
“From what I’ve looked at in the literature, I wouldn’t say it’s guaranteed to make any difference either.”
He advised that cameras or devices that notify a farmer when a cow is calving “are very useful”, and noted that if cows are disturbed when they are trying to calve it “will mean that they will take longer to calve”.
“The likes of a calving camera where you can look at the cow without disturbing her, aids like that are great for the farmer, but they’re also great for the cow and making her feel more at ease.”