Articles

With early lambing ewes approaching lambing and field conditions getting muddy, some are looking to start housing post Christmas. 

Remember to check the performance of sheep grazing brassicas, this can be done through regular weighing, assessing fat or condition scoring. 

When the tups are removed from the ewes, they may have lost condition, with an estimated 15% loss of body weight during the tupping season, this is especially true in newly purchased heavily fed tups.  This condition should be managed to ensure survivability through the winter.

Clipping the backs of cattle at the point of housing is for most now a common practice to reduce sweating and the risk of pneumonia.  Trying to keep cattle cool…

With cattle now housed some farmers are reporting stock with loose dung. One of the reasons for this could be due to the high quality silages that have been made this year which are providing relatively little long fibre.

This summer saw an increased interest in the production of wholecrop cereal silage for feeding to livestock as an alternative forage.

The dry summer this year has led to an increase overall in the average dry matter (DM) of silages received into the SAC lab. In the pit, high DM silages are more susceptible to heating and spoilage and are more likely to contain mycotoxins.

In normal conditions, plants do not absorb so much nitrate as to cause problems in stock. However, warm overcast weather after a long dry spell, can lead to an increase of nitrogen absorption, particularly on leafy forage brassicas.