Lack of grass

Welcome to my first blog! Here I will share my musings on a variety of subjects related to beef and sheep production. I hope you enjoy reading it. Feel free to comment below and share the blog with anyone who might be interested.

In spite of some brief rainy interludes this week, the drought conditions being experienced all over the country remain a serious issue for livestock farmers. Even on heavy soils the grass growth has just about stopped. Around where I live in north Bucks the silage cuts taken in early July have failed to show any re-growth at all.

The immediate problems of feeding cattle and sheep tend to be less serious than expected, with the old adage ‘better fried than boiled’ coming in to play. It is surprising how well ewes and cows can do on an apparently near dead pasture. That said, there are some measures that are worth considering to better cope with the situation.

For sucklers consider early weaning. Calves that are three to four months or older can take feed themselves, and with a well constructed concentrate they will not suffer much of a check in growth. Removing them from the cow will mean that the cows are under less pressure to provide milk. They can then put the limited feed energy into preserving or gaining body condition, and getting pregnant.

My experience of doing this did require the cows to be housed for a week to get over the loss of the calf (unless you have very sturdy fences – which I did not!). However once the calves were weaned, the cow condition improved, and the calves grew on well and had lifetime finishing performance comparable with suckled calves weaned at seven to nine months.

I have not had the same direct experience with lambs, but the best advice would be to get the creep feeders going asap to make sure lambs don’t suffer any checks.

Longer term, the issue of sufficient winter forage could be a problem with straw in short supply and silage stocks low. The only answer is to do a cool appraisal of what stock you have and what you can sensibly purchase, and work out from there what your winter rations need to be. Some in-roads can be made into winter feed costs for breeding stock by extending grazing into autumn and turning out animals early if ground conditions allow, but it is much better to plan for a standard winter and have the insurance of knowing you have enough forage available.