Management Notes for September 2017

Management Notes are prepared by staff from the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE). CAFRE is a college within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Good quality grass has the potential to produce 10-13 litres of milk in September.

Management Notes are prepared by staff from the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE). CAFRE is a college within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

DAIRYING

Prepared by: Christopher Breen

Managing grazing in September

Concentrates account for about two thirds of the variable costs of milk production. Making the most of grazing can therefore save on concentrates and reduce costs. Good conditions, quality swards and the availability of aftergrass means your herd has the potential to produce 10-13 litres of milk from forage in September.

Planning for early grass next spring

As this is probably the last rotation before housing, what you do now will have an effect on any early grazing next spring. The timing of paddock closure and residual grazing heights now, determines the start date for grazing and grass quality next year.

• Paddocks closed now will be the first to be grazed in spring.
• Paddocks should be grazed to 5 cm or less on a rotational basis and closed for the winter.
• Paddocks should not be grazed again, even if there is good grass growth in October/November.  
• Paddocks closed in late November will not have sufficient grass for grazing until the end of March or April next year.

Dry cows

Findings from a number of AFBI research trials emphasise the importance of adopting good management practices to ensure health and performance during the next lactation. Effective dry cow management ensures cows are dried off 50-60 days before calving and calve down at body condition score 2.75-3.00. If cows are too thin or too fat alter their feed to allow them to achieve this condition score at calving. Fibrous silage and straw are good for keeping the rumen expanded and working. However, as the cow approaches calving her intake declines and concentrates should also be fed. 

Why not use two dry cow groups as a means of managing condition score? Operate with ‘recently dried’ and ‘close to calving’ groups. For the ‘recently dried’ group target about 100 MJ of energy per cow daily by feeding fibrous grass silage along with a good quality dry cow mineral. For the ‘close to calving’ group, if dry cows have been grazed, they should be housed for the last four weeks of pregnancy. House them at less than 85% stocking density and provide at least 75 cm per cow feed space with a clean, dry and comfortable lying area. Increase energy intake to 120 MJ. Add chopped straw and introduce a high quality pre-calver feed into the ration. The ‘close to calving’ group at Greenmount is usually offered 1.0-2.0 kg of a pre-calver feed.

One week before calving, they are moved to straw bedded pens where they are fed the same diet as the milking cows.

September jobs checklist

• Prepare or repair livestock housing before winter.
• Correct soil pH where necessary. If ground conditions allow autumn is a great time to apply lime. Aim for a pH of 6.3 to get the optimum results from fertiliser next year.
• Assess condition of young stock, especially maiden heifers. Will they be in the right condition for service?
• Are any vaccinations, for example BVD due in advance of the breeding season?
• If conditions permit autumn is the ideal time to subsoil compacted areas allowing them to rest over the winter period.
• Analyse silage in preparation for planning the winter diet.
• Have you enough silage? Now is the time to see what you have and work out how much you need.
• Under the Nitrates Action Programme 2015-2018 and Phosphorus Regulations, 15 September is the last day for sowing chemical nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser on grassland.

BEEF AND SHEEP

Prepared by: Darryl Boyd

BEEF

Vaccination

Weather conditions may have forced the housing of cattle already in many parts of the country, but if not, now is the time to prepare for housing and vaccination of young stock. Different types of vaccines are available:

• Live (modified) vaccines offer quicker onset of immunity whereas inactivated vaccines take longer to provide protection.
• Some vaccines are a one off injection providing immediate but short term cover whereas others require two injections often weeks apart and some are intra-nasal.
• For full protection some vaccines require boosters at six to 12 month intervals.

The most accurate way to determine which vaccine to use is to test unvaccinated young stock to find out which bugs were an issue during previous winters. Also consider if handling stock twice before housing is an option on out-farms? It is also important to note that all pneumonia vaccines have a set minimum age which can range from nine days to three months old. On a final note vaccination doesn’t solely eliminate problems, the right environment and other health issues are equally as important as vaccination.

Creep feeding

Creep feeding spring born calves is advantageous in any system. If you’re selling in the autumn calf sales it will help ‘shine up’ your calves and also add weight. At this age young stock convert a quality creep at 4.5 per one kilogramme liveweight. Therefore 60 kg creep costing £12 (£200 per tonne) equates to £29 increased sales ((60/4.5)*£2.20) resulting in £17 margin over this additional feed. Even if you are not selling, creep feed is the only thing that remains constant for calves. Over the next few months they will be removed from their dams, have their environment changed at housing and diet changed from grass to silage. The creep can act as a comfort at this stressful time and reduce setbacks.

Feed a high quality creep containing protein from soya bean and cereals like barley/wheat or maize. Avoid concentrates with large amounts of lower quality feedstuffs such as wheat feed or sunflower meal. Protein content should be between 16 and 18%.

SHEEP

Bought in sheep

If buying in replacements minimise the chance of importing problems by having a good quarantine strategy in place, with the aim of removing any resistant worms and scab. On arrival house or yard sheep away from contact with your own. Discuss suitable wormer and scab control methods with your vet. After 24-48 hours turn the sheep out onto pasture that has carried sheep in the current season and keep them isolated for at least three weeks.

Ewe management pre-tupping

The target body score at tupping for lowland ewes is 3.0-3.5 and 2.5-3.0 for hill ewes. Assess body scores every three weeks. It takes three to five weeks on good grass (2,300 kg dry matter per hectare or 7 cm high) to put on 0.5 body score or in terms of live weight one condition score equates to approximately 12% of the ewes live weight. Management of ewes by condition score should therefore be carried out by now but it is important to monitor this as different ewes within batches will gain/lose condition at different rates. Carry out all ewe preparations for tupping, including veterinary treatments, at least three weeks before mating.

GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT

Managing grass swards

Although August was a wash out in many parts of the country nitrogen fertiliser can still be applied up to 15th September if conditions allow. Apply 40 kg nitrogen per hectare (30 units per acre) to younger swards and drier areas to provide extended grazing for young cattle and sheep. At the start of September ideally there should be 30 grazing days ahead of grass. If ground conditions deteriorate on heavier soils avoid poaching by housing cows and heavier cattle. Move stock quickly over the grazing blocks, ideally every one to three days, to avoid poaching in wet times and allow grass to recover.

CROPS

Prepared by: Leigh McLean

CEREALS

Aphid monitoring and virus control

This year has seen a higher incidence of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) than usual. BYDV is transmitted into winter cereals by aphids in two ways. Firstly cereal volunteers or grass weeds act as hosts for aphids after harvest. This type of infection typically causes large discrete patches of severely infected plants. To protect against this threat destroy the ‘green bridge’ in fields with weedy stubble or volunteers by desiccating seven to ten days before ploughing or allowing 14 days between ploughing and sowing. The second source of virus infection is from winged aphids flying from grass or cereal volunteers elsewhere. This is the most common route for BYDV infection in autumn cereals. To monitor this threat AFBI, using a suction trap, monitor cereal aphid migration which is updated weekly along with advice on control. This information is available on the AFBI website.

Insecticide seed treatment, for example Redigo Deter is worth considering. Seed treatment protects emerging seedlings from both non-winged and winged BYDV transmitting aphids in the weeks post crop emergence, particularly useful where weather hampers an aphicide spray.

Variety selection

At recent AHDB funded variety trials workshops AFBI’s Dr Lisa Black demonstrated new varieties, particularly in winter wheat, that have significantly improved disease resistance profiles over some commonly grown favourites. The difference between fungicide treated and untreated plots showed how selecting the best varieties contributes meaningful protection against yield robbing diseases such as yellow rust, mildew and septoria in wheat as well as rhynchosporium and mildew in barley. For further details on full AHDB recommended variety lists, see the AFBI website.

Place seed orders early as choices will become fewer as the drilling season progresses.

Cultural weed control

Whilst grass weed infestations were less common and severe this year than in 2016 do not become complacent. Inspect where there have been problems in the past and where necessary make use of stale seedbeds. For most grasses, including sterile and great brome, lightly cultivate immediately after harvest to encourage a flush of weed seeds which can be burnt off before ploughing and drilling. If meadow, rye or soft brome is the main problem leave seeds to ripen for three to four weeks before the first stale seedbed cultivation. If this does not allow sufficient time to establish a winter crop consider a spring crop which allows a longer window to get on top of severe grass weed problems.   

Slug monitoring

Reported slug numbers are high this year. After harvest assess slug numbers by trapping when weather is mild and soil moist. Use a tea tray sized trap with suitable bait such as layers mash underneath. Avoid using slug pellets when baiting as the high concentration of pellets may poison wildlife or pets. Leave traps overnight and check for slugs the next day. This will give an indication of the risk level to the new crop and give time to plan the control strategy.

Good seedbed preparation is the first step in controlling slugs. Removing weeds and green cover reduces the habitat and feed source for slugs. Aim for a clod free, firm seedbed which enables seed to germinate and grow quickly through the high risk establishment period and restricts slug movement making it difficult for them to find seed and seedlings. If slug numbers exceed four per trap in cereals or one per trap in oilseed rape consider applying slug pellets if newly emerging crops are still at risk. 

POTATO MANAGEMENT

Late season management

Routinely inspect crops for blight as the canopy begins to senesce, maintaining blight spray programmes until after haulm desiccation to avoid late blight developing. Regular trial digs indicate when tuber size has reached your market specification, allowing desiccation to be timed accordingly. Allow sufficient time for full skin set before harvesting the crop into the controlled environment of a store before soil conditions deteriorate. 

Store and equipment preparation

Spores of many storage diseases lie dormant in the dust and debris in stores, boxes and equipment. Thorough cleaning is one of the most effective ways to avoid carryover of disease from previous years. Significant reductions in infection can be achieved by thoroughly power hosing or vacuuming stores before the new crop is harvested. For best results, thoroughly wash and disinfect boxes, harvesters, trailers and grading equipment. 

Prepared by Claire Anderson

Update on beak trimming in laying hen flocks

Beak trimming is used to improve welfare in laying hen flocks by reducing the impact of feather pecking. Feather pecking is something that can occur in flocks, which not only affects the health of a flock but can also cause injury or death. One solution is to blunt beaks by trimming them. This procedure is currently carried out on day old chicks using infra-red technology, which in itself also has welfare implications. Although Defra legislated to ban beak trimming by 1 January 2011, they took advice from the Farm Animal Welfare Council and decided not to introduce a total ban until it could be demonstrated, under commercial conditions, that laying hens could be managed without beak trimming, without a greater risk to their welfare than that caused by beak trimming. The government established the Beak Trimming Action Group, a group made up of stakeholders from the industry, government, welfare groups and vets to look at the issue. They used study tours, literature reviews, domestic research, the success or otherwise of management interventions and other factors such as genetic or nutritional influences to inform their decision. In December 2016 Defra minister, George Eustice, announced that the proposed ban on beak trimming would not be introduced based on the group’s findings. However, Germany recently took the decision to ban the procedure and join Switzerland as the only two European countries to do so. 

On a recent trip to Germany I saw firsthand measures adopted to mitigate the effect of not beak trimming. These are based on offering manipulable material and enrichment to the laying birds. Systems include:

• PickPuck - this offers birds access to feed 24 hours a day on a corundum plate. As well as offering an alternative feeding experience, the system also causes the natural painless wearing of the beak due to the texture of corundum plate. 
• VTL system - this provides maize and other material through a ceiling mounted tube with controlled shutters over the litter area affording the birds another feeding experience to increase stimulation. 

It is early days for German producers but we watch with interest on how the beak trimming ban will impact on the national laying flock.

Rodent control and biosecurity

With harvest time and the move to autumn rodents will naturally head to where there is feed and shelter. Rodents present a real risk to human health, animal health and welfare, food hygiene, building integrity and safety. Some of the diseases, parasites and bacteria that they harbour are transmissible to humans, pets and farm livestock, justifying their internationally accepted ‘significant public health pest’ status from the World Health Organisation. The best long term and cost effective control of rat and mouse populations will almost always be achieved by a well-planned preventive programme as recommended by your packer or processor. Activities that contribute towards making a site less attractive to rodents should form the basis of any proactive rodent management programme.

Rodent infestations require:

• Food
• Water (less important for house mice)
• Harbourage (somewhere to live and nest)

If any of these factors are not present or have low availability, the site is less likely to attract or sustain a rodent infestation. Poor vermin control inevitably results in re-infestation and prolongs on going health risks such as salmonella, which can be transferred from vermin to poultry. It is important to review your rodent control plan to ensure that it is achieving the right result. Keep an eye on buildings to ensure they are vermin proof, clear up feed spillages and keep your site free from debris. Offer them nowhere to go and there is no reason for them to be on your site!

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