Newsletter
11th May 2011 Community Group Day
Farm Update
Feed situation
Average pasture cover was assessed at 1850kgDM/ha; a much more comfortable position than the scary 1250kgDM/ha recorded at the same time last year. This has been achieved via a reduction in finishing stock numbers, and application of 70 units of urea/Ha to 100 Ha in mid-April; visually the response has been excellent, and seems to be reflected in the jump in growth under the pasture cages shown below.
Pasture growth rates
|
Monthly PGR (Kg DM/ha/day) |
||||||
|
Month |
Nov |
Dec |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
|
Flat Cage |
58 |
42 |
47 |
29 |
20 |
51 |
|
Hill Cage |
41 |
9 |
32 |
29 |
29 |
40 |
|
Derived* |
29 |
22 |
24 |
26 |
18 |
|
|
‘Typical' |
60 |
45 |
25 |
15 |
18 |
16 |
|
* From feed budget - for whole farm |
||||||
12 Ha has come out of Pasja and into new grass. Maintenance fertiliser applied in mid April
Winter crops
- 3ha greenfeed oats
- 5.5ha rape; has been finishing lambs, received a dressing of 150kg urea/ha 15 April
- 5.5ha kale, been grazed with lambs and given urea as above
- 7.3ha plantain; has been used to grow ewe lambs
Cattle
Breeding herd
Features of the breeding herd performance this year have been
- Below target cow and calf survival around calving
- Poorer than normal calf growth rates to weaning
- A high empty rate
|
KPI |
2010-2011 Season |
Historic Performance |
|
Cow mortality rate |
6% |
1% or less |
|
Calf survival to weaning |
85% |
95% + |
|
Calf LWG to weaning* |
0.82kg/day |
0.95kg/day-1kg/day |
|
Cow in calf rate** |
78% XB 66% Limo |
95%+ XB 88% + Limo |
*Calculated from estimated birthweights and mean weaning weights; somewhat reduced by a group of late-calving cows
**XB = Crossbred cows, Limo = Limousins
The cause of these results started back at weaning last year; cows weaned lighter than target last year and a large number were grazed out with the expectation of a weight gain. Cows in fact lost weight out grazing, and a high percentage of the cow losses around calving could be put down to cows with low energy reserves getting into trouble via metabolic issues and misadventure. The calving period was followed by a late spring and summer of poor pasture growth which affected milk production and the ability of the cows to regain weight for mating.
This winter will see:
- 64 cows out grazing with monitoring of condition gain
- 40 cows culled
- 68 cows wintered
This is a large reduction in cow numbers on last year but as has happened in other years Simon may purchase in calf cows or cows with calves at foot.
Sheep
Ewes
Mating dates were:
- Terminal ewes: 28th March
- Maternal ewes: 1st April
- Two-tooths: 10th April
Ewe body condition has lifted significantly since mid-March:
|
Date |
Average |
%3 or greater |
|
16/03/2011 |
2.54 |
35% |
|
28/04/2011 |
3.05 |
68% |
The target for ewes at mating is BCS 3 with none below 2.5. See below.
|
Ewe body condition score - feeling across and UNDER short ribs |
Description - how it feels - compared to your hand |
|
2.0 |
Muscle depth under short ribs equivalent to distance from first knuckle to finger tip. Can feel spine, back muscle is flat or slightly concave and not rounded |
|
2.5 |
Muscle depth under short ribs about equivalent to distance from second knuckle to first knuckle when fingers are flexed. Need some pressure to feel short ribs. Some cover on spine, back muscle flat. |
|
3.0 |
Muscle depth under short ribs about equivalent to distance from 3rd knuckle to 2nd knuckle when fingers are flexed. Need moderate to strong pressure to feel short ribs. Back muscle rounded. |
|
4.0 |
‘Prime'. Can only feel short ribs with really strong pressure, back is rounded with plenty of fat cover |
Recent blood tests (GGT) of the maternal ewe flock indicated that the majority of the flock are unaffected by some high facial eczema spore counts recorded in the mid-late autumn period.
Tail end ewes were drenched with a short-acting combination at tupping. Faecal egg counts at tupping were mostly low and these were repeated at the end of April with even lower results.
Ewe hoggets
Have continued to appear to grow well on a mix of plantain crop and grass; assessing true liveweight gain on this regime has been complicated by gut fill differences at subsequent weighings.
Plan ‘A' was to only mate hoggets over 39k LW, however the pre-mating weighing was disappointing with an average LW of 36kg, although the hoggets visually looked very good. The bottom 15% were removed and 317 teased ewe hoggets were mated to ram lambs of the same genetic background (to reduce the hybrid vigour effect on birthweight) on 1 May.
From here on in there will be intensive effort go into ensuring that the light pregnant hoggets are managed for good weight gains to be at 90% of mature liveweight at lambing.
We will also be monitoring the performance of a number of other hogget flocks in the district, and this will be a focus topic at the next Community Group day on 3 August.
The afternoon session of this day included tutorials on:
- Winter ewe management strategies
- ‘Back of the envelope' feed budgeting
- A simple system of cow body condition scoring
Cow Condition Chart (0.32MB)
Winter Ewe Management (0.15MB)
Feed budgeting tutorial Wishnowsky 11 May 2011.pdf (0.20MB)
If for some reason you can not view these, contact Pip at Totally Vets: pip@totallyvets.co.nz (06) 323 6161.
