With this week’s weather forecast promising favorable weather conditions for cattle out grazing on land, many suckler farmers have decided to prolong grazing for at least another week.
Last week’s weather brought heavy rain to many parts of the country leaving many farmers seriously considering housing stock for the winter however high pressure seems to be building over the country currently and at least a few good days are promised in the forecast.
With this in mind, suckler farmers – who have not already done so – may now have the opportunity to wean calves of cows while still on grass and, with this in mind, the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has offered some useful tips to suckler farmers.
Benefits of creep grazing:
- Calves get access to better-quality grass;
- Acclimatises calves to being away from the herd and reduces stress during weaning;
- Can reduce concentrate requirement when practiced earlier in the season;
- Troughs can be placed in the forward-grazing area removing the need for a creep feeder.
While grass quality does begin to drop off in October, it is still fairly plentiful on most farms so it’s in farmers best interests to utilize as much of it as possible – without eating into next Spring’s reserves.
It’s no secret that suckler cows have a big appetite and can clear out fields of grass in a very short space of time leaving weanlings competing for grass with their stronger, more confident grazing dams.
In an effort to counteract this, many suckler farmers implement a creep grazing system. This is where the weanlings get priority access to the paddock of grass in front of the field the cows are grazing – giving them a competitive advantage to consume the best quality grass available in the paddock – before the cows get there.
Calves can be allowed to graze ahead by erecting a simple electric fence with a raised wire allowing calves to pass underneath it.
Alternatively, creep gates can be erected but this is more costly and may not be feasible where fields are being split into smaller paddock sections.
One one the biggest threats to weanlings at this time of the year is Pneumonia – especially in the days following weaning and farmers should be conscious of this.
The general consensus among many suckler farmers is that a pneumonia vaccine is the safest option to mitigate the risk ahead of weaning.