Blog

In these difficult times it is important to look after yourself and those around you.

Having a pre breeding examination carried out on breeding bulls up to 8 weeks before the bulls are due to go out with the cows you can save yourself the stress of finding out later that the bull was not fit for the job.

Recording lamb death is not a fun activity but it can be useful to identify patterns early on and refine management for next year.

Conditions haven’t been favourable as yet for grass growth, with many waterlogged and cold soils.  To compensate for limited grazing, it is worth evaluating creep feeding of lambs this year. 

If the wet weather continues turnout will be delayed due to wet ground conditions and the risk of poaching.

In a recent two year study by Tim Gergahty of SRUC Veterinary studies into calf losses from suckler herds in the North East of Scotland from PD’ing to weaning 3% of losses were abortions.  This is a significant loss of potential income to the producer alongside the cost of running a cow empty for the year.

If you have had forage damaged by flooding than there are a few things you can do on farm to assess the nutritional effect and minimise the risks.  A good first step is to calculate how much forage is available.