Using a Pre-Season Schedule Will Enhance Year-Round Performance

August 2011

August is the optimum time to run a pre-season check in three key areas: Pastures, to make sure the grass will be established and healthy for the forthcoming spring; Dry Cows, to ensure they are on a nutrition plane that will take them straight into milking, and Sheep, taking decisions now that will make them as prolific as possible.

By addressing these critical areas before the season gets under way the farm can ensure that performance will be enhanced as a result of pre-planning.

Starting with grass, pastures may be looking rather thin in August after a testing spring, which offers a re-seeding opportunity to be taken now before any more weeks go by. The CF Grass Seed Mixtures, which include high quality and high yielding Aber varieties in some mixtures, are not the cheapest on the market, but they perform to a high standard and feedback from farmers is always positive.

A soil test this autumn will be money well spent to assess nutrient values and pH levels to highlight fertilizer requirements for the spring or if re-seeding this autumn. Establishing reseeds correctly will ensure a more reliable performance in the spring.

With regard to dry cows, it has become increasingly apparent through research that the early stages of a cow’s lactation are the most important and that getting levels right now can set the correct pattern for the entire lactation process.

Not over-feeding is one of the most important factors, as this can increase the body fat loss after calving which then affects fertility levels. It’s a sound policy to undertake some dry cow management now rather than simply bringing them in a month before they go into calving. Setting the ration correct in August will pay back massively in September and October when the milk prices rise and you can benefit from having a productive herd.

Adding either haylage or processed straw in the dry cow ration will fill them up well. Space for dry cows is very important too: a point of a metre per thousand litres of yield is a good rough guide, so a 10,000 litre cow would require one metre of feeding space. Well balanced feeding space also ensures that the heifers don’t get bullied off it and end up living off the scraps.

Turning to Sheep, this time of the year is all about getting the ewes fit for tupping and the rams ready for their work. Booster buckets such as the Duchy Tup Bucket, which is high in Omega Three fish oils, are a great boost to fecundity and overall health at a time when the grass is lacking in nutrients. So too are Rumevite feedblocks, which some farmers prefer in situations where there is less grass available.

Offering Duchy Tup Buckets to the rams about three weeks before they are due to start work will ensure they have the longevity to keep everyone happy.

For further information please contact Cornwall Farmers’ nutritional specialists by calling Matthew Jenkin on 07770 598296, David Passmore on 07901 854463, Blair Vanstone on 07799 773990, Philippa Lohmeyer on 07976 468563 or Robert Northcott on 07919 382518