Farmer Focus: Winter feeding should be a way off yet

Autumn has arrived with a bang. A fortnight ago, the ponds that supply our water troughs were empty and the ground was as dry as I have seen it in autumn.

Since the rain came, there has hardly been a dry day. The ponds are now full and the gutters are flowing again. 

Our calves were weaned on 4 September and are now housed on slats for the winter. 

See also: Ration change helps suckler farm lift calves weaned

About the author

David Girvan

Livestock Farmer Focus writer David Girvan and family run a 140-cow Stabiliser herd and wool-shedding crossbred ewes on a 3,000ha upland farm west of Inverness. Finished stock are sent to Woodheads. Diversifications include pumpkin picking, wind turbines and a biomass boiler.

Read more articles by David Girvan

In the past, we have returned calves to grass after weaning, finding that they get back to grazing and, apart from a bit of fence wandering, get on without mum well.

However, this year our crops of swedes – that we direct drilled into grass – is very poor.

This will be used for wintering ewes, so knowing we will be short of roots I decided it would be best to carry as much grass into the winter as possible.

Feeding calves on the slats for an extra few weeks is a lot more appealing than feeding ewes silage in ring feeders. 

The cows were scanned on 9 September. Of 121 cows, six are empty, and of 32 heifers, three are empty. We are due five sets of twins – a few more than normal, for us at least. 

The bulls were out for just under eight weeks. Four of the six bulls were yearlings, so I’m pleased to see they’ve been working. 

All cows that were scanned empty are decently fleshed, so they are now booked for slaughter in a few weeks’ time.

Empty heifers will also be slaughtered as soon as they get over 550kg, with decent cover. 

Sometimes it can be tough slaughtering heifers that catch the eye, but in rare times in the past where I have made an exception, I have regretted it.

All our mature cows are now out on some of our more inaccessible hill ground. We save the more accessible areas for later in the winter, making the job of feeding that bit easier.

One of my favourite traits of the Stabiliser breed is that they are easy fleshing, which means they are in fine fettle when they are put to the hill, delaying the need for feeding.

With the price of feed, I’m hoping that we can hold off feeding for at least two months.