In-calf rates pleasing for Ian Ratcliffe

Spring is finally around the corner and we turned 70 cows out to graze during the day from the 12 February to a nice cover of 2,500kg DM/ha.


The farm grew a little grass through the winter until the start of February, when the frost came, giving us an average farm cover of 2,300kg DM/ha over the 90 grazeable acres. These 70 low yielders were turned out full time on 17 February with the aim of eating 14kg DM of grazed grass. The rest of the herd will be inside on full TMR until grass growth increases and more and more will then be turned out.

We had a busy autumn serving the herd aiming for a 10-week block from 21 July to the end of September. We had arranged for a technician to come every morning at 9am to serve our animals, but we were in charge of tail painting and sorting them out. This worked well, using our management race to full effect. We served to British Blue for six weeks and then ran two Aberdeen Angus bulls sweeping up for December. Final results show we have got 140 in-calf for the block, which we are pleased with especially with cow prices so high.

This still means I need to find 60 animals by the summer so I can reach my target of calving 200 in 10 weeks. I feel this will be a huge challenge as there are noticeably less cows on the market, with fewer dispersal sales coupled with farmers’ wallets bulging having had a good milk price all winter. I fear the days of the cheap cow are over.

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