A calving to remember – Noldy Rust

The month of September rolling around always gives me such a feeling of relief. I guess it’s owing to the fact that this is it, spring is here, the rush is over, and with daylight saving looming it will mean that those long evenings will once again reappear enabling all sorts of outdoor activity. Oh, the joy that comes with this time of year, daffodils are out, trees are throwing out new shoots, and calves are skipping around in the paddock, free from their restrictive enclosures. However, just because the sun is shining today and it’s warm and clear, it can still change. The forecast for the first half of September isn’t too crash hot, hence the reason to get this written while the going is good!

With only a handful of cows left to calve, I can honestly say that this has been a calving to remember. I don’t know how you all have fared, but for us, the common things that can go wrong and make life tough, such as down cows, mastitis, difficult calvings, and cow and calf deaths have been few and far between. I don’t wish to speak too soon, but plenty of mag in the diet all winter, a rigorous dry cow programme, well-conditioned animals, vigilant observation of springers, and a fantastic new lube pump that helps calves pop out like a cork from a champagne bottle (see previous blog) have meant that this calving has been as good as it gets. Much of the credit must go to Sam for his attention to detail and getting things done right. Mind you, it was me who organised the lube pump. And paid for the Teatseal. And the mag for that matter. What I’m saying is that I did play a small part. However, all that aside, smooth sailing makes life easy and keeps the cost down. We had to invite our vet out for a cup of tea so Sam could meet her!! And she’s been our vet since February! Sam has to go do a refresher on how to treat mastitis as it’s been so long, and I can’t remember the surname of that JD guy that used to come and pick up dead cows. I better stop bragging now, otherwise it will come back and haunt me! However, we are often quick to moan when things are bleak, it’s only right to celebrate success too!

We’re a bit more onto it this year with our feed budgeting and pasture allocation. Sam is regularly doing his farm walks and we decided earlier in the piece to engage the services of Regan from LIC Farmwise. He’s a good, keen man and the aim of having him on board is to keep us on track, making sure we match rotation length with feed available and don’t end up getting our cover too low, whilst recognising any projected surplus early. In our regime, we use supplementary feed most of the year on the pad, but only if it’s needed to maintain feed intakes and manage residuals.

It’s so good not having to buy in feed at the moment, but there are always opportunities to spend money just when we think we have nothing to spend it on. We always do an annual machine check, and there’s often something that needs repairing. But the vacuum pump?? Couldn’t it just be some perished elbows or something? I mean to say, we reconditioned this not long ago?? Can’t argue though, it’s an important piece of machinery and it’s got to be right! And then there’s the tractor service. Had hoped it would be a simple case of changing a few filters and flushing the radiator, but oh no, the ever-vigilant mechanic spotted some bearings that should have collapsed long ago! The 3-hour service turned into a tractor out of action for a week. I gave Sam a square mouth shovel and some concrete pills in order for him to load the maize by hand, but he balked, opted to go visit our ever-obliging neighbour and borrow a spare tractor with a good loader on it. Back in my day…, nah, we won’t go there!

Our heifer calf numbers were down a bit this year. We did AI on the heifers and the better cows and managed to get a few keepers from them, and consequently had put more lower BW cows in calf to Wagyu, white face and Speckle Park. We thought we had the numbers right, but with slightly more empties than usual and a few more bull calves, we are a bit short on rearers. Were a bit short should I say. Luckily a farmer down the road had surplus heifers, so that sorted that out! Our aim is to try and minimise bobby calves, and this is working well. The only real bobbies are any dairy breed bull calves, and this year, against my wishes might I add, these bobbies go to AC Petfoods. I must say, it is an easy option. They come and pick them up daily, which means no time spent teaching them to drink off a feeder. Plus, the biggest bonus is that it’s nice and humane for the calf. No long truck rides and no need to wait until four days old.

Before we know it mating time will be here. Bulls are ordered and we’ll do the non-cyclers running separately with bulls again as this has worked well in the past. Metrichecking has been done on 80% of the cows, and the tailpaint for pre-mating heats is due to be applied. I am wondering, in order to minimise bobbies even more, should we try Red Devon bulls over our heifers? They say they’re easy calving and there should be a market for them I would have thought. Too risky?? Looking for advice here team?? It would be awesome to have Red Devons and Speckles and white face and Wagyu and Friesian. In this cosmopolitan world we live in, it would be almost not PC not to!

That’s me done, time to get out there and feed the calves and check those few springers. Wouldn’t want to have to give that JD guy a call now would I?? I’ve forgotten his number anyway!!

4 Comments

  • Red Devon cute calves, generally low birth weight.
    Speckles are a hit with the lifestylers, not sure about heifers though. We used stabilizers over lower producers this yr and certainly throw smaller calves at birth. Semen available from haslett ltd. Would b fine over heifers i would think.
    Look fwd to seeing what u decide!

    • I think we’ll AI the heifers and then try the Red Devons. The plan is to synchronise them, put them up to AI and then put anything up to visible heats up to day 23. Then use Red Devon bulls. That way only a few will be in calf to them as a bit of a trial. – Noldy

  • I’ve been wondering about a beef bull for my heifers too.. will be keen to see how they go next season. Saying that, calf rearers aren’t so keen on red calves – they prefer the black (angus) ones, which I won’t use on my heifers. So, will there be a market for the red devons as 4 day olds??

    • Hi Vicki
      In my view any beef calf is worth more than a bobby. Trademe is a great avenue for selling calves that are a bit out of the ordinary. Lifestylers often purchase these sort of calves. W/f and those popular breeds are sought after but I’m sure that for the right price we’ll find a home for these ones also.
      Thanks for your comment.

      Noldy

Leave a reply