Mucky Manor Pics

Do you have any bother with cows calving on the slat mats because I was thinking of having an etra calving pen with a roll of mat instead of straw or would it be too slippy

I calve everything on the slat mats over there. I'll move them out to a bedded pen later today. There's never been a problem calving them on the mats. I have to add that I would only have a max of 2 cows in the maternity pen at any time. Also, I only keep mature cows over there that have a history of calving on their own.

It's not ideal to be calving cows 60 miles from home but this way works well for us and it appeases the father in law and saves my ear.
 
I calve everything on the slat mats over there. I'll move them out to a bedded pen later today. There's never been a problem calving them on the mats. I have to add that I would only have a max of 2 cows in the maternity pen at any time. Also, I only keep mature cows over there that have a history of calving on their own.

It's not ideal to be calving cows 60 miles from home but this way works well for us and it appeases the father in law and saves my ear.
Do you not get bother with joint ill?

If we’ve ever a cow calve in the cubicles the calf will get joint ill.
 
Do you not get bother with joint ill?

If we’ve ever a cow calve in the cubicles the calf will get joint ill.

Never had calves with joint ill. Have had lambs with joint ill in the past, but never calves. There's a bigger danger of bacteria in bedding than on rubber mats. I disinfect the maternity pen pretty stringently too.
 
Never had calves with joint ill. Have had lambs with joint ill in the past, but never calves. There's a bigger danger of bacteria in bedding than on rubber mats. I disinfect the maternity pen pretty stringently too.
Must be specific to here then,a certain bacteria strain we have.
 
I get a fair bit of joint ill here too, last year I even had a calf born outside in April get it. Must be gust in the place. It’s easily enough controlled if you watch out for swollen navels.
 
A few of the heifers that we hope to finish off grass by mid summer. All around 20 months. They have never seen a dust of meal until the last week but they come very fast to a rattling bucket now. I want them meal trained so that they can be easily moved from field to field during the summer months.

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Its great to see grass moving after getting slurry 2 weeks ago. View attachment 89249View attachment 89250

I mentioned slurry bugs a few weeks back. The pics in the quotesbmessage above that I took 2 weeks show some remnants of slurry lines. The lines have now completely disappeared and the slurry appears to have broken down and been absorbed. I'll get a pic tomorrow.

But I did get this pic today of slurry spread the same day as the slurry in the pics above, only this slurry had no bug treatment.

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Was there an old thread called the ideal suckler cow? This is ours. Light weight, easy on ground. Easy calving, will bring good sized calves. Bags of milk. Docile. Fertile. Easy fed - will eat 25% less than a big CH or LM cow. 9 out of 10 of pur best selling weanlings/stores this year were from shorthorn cows. They bring that golden calf that is always in demand.

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Was there an old thread called the ideal suckler cow? This is ours. Light weight, easy on ground. Easy calving, will bring good sized calves. Bags of milk. Docile. Fertile. Easy fed - will eat 25% less than a big CH or LM cow. 9 out of 10 of pur best selling weanlings/stores this year were from shorthorn cows. They bring that golden calf that is always in demand.

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Not really related but a lad was telking me recently his daughter needed 430 points in the leaving and she got 435. But a question in ag science is what would you be looking for in a replacement suckler heifer, one of her answers was temperament, but was not given any points as it wasnt on the curriculum book, surely if the mother was mad you would think strongly about keeping a heifer from her for breeding
 
Not really related but a lad was telking me recently his daughter needed 430 points in the leaving and she got 435. But a question in ag science is what would you be looking for in a replacement suckler heifer, one of her answers was temperament, but was not given any points as it wasnt on the curriculum book, surely if the mother was mad you would think strongly about keeping a heifer from her for breeding
I'd be disappointed if I didn't get marks for that. The breed societies all use the word docility now. I wonder if she had used the term docility, would she have gotten the points?

We cull cows here based on their docility. Have a lovely simmental heifer calved about 4 weeks. She was flighty in the calving pens after calving bit manageable. She is on the slats now and the calf can access the creep and she is a living danger. You cannot go into the pen. She'll not meet the bull this year
 
Not really related but a lad was telking me recently his daughter needed 430 points in the leaving and she got 435. But a question in ag science is what would you be looking for in a replacement suckler heifer, one of her answers was temperament, but was not given any points as it wasnt on the curriculum book, surely if the mother was mad you would think strongly about keeping a heifer from her for breeding
That marker was in the wrong that answer was correct, probably would only be worth a mark or 2 though so may not have changed overall results
 
That marker was in the wrong that answer was correct, probably would only be worth a mark or 2 though so may not have changed overall results
No but if was 5 points off... this was 5 years ago so could have been changed since... it only came up in conversation as we where moving cattle and there was a heifer cleared 2 gates and was gone, ùand he said that's why I am not breeding off her
 
I have a farming friend who was sent to boarding school to try and make an academic out of him (stupid idea) as he hated every day he every spent in school. Just couldn't deal with life indoors. Ag science was about the only subject he had any interest in, he was always a regular contributor in class. Anyways cutting to the chase, he was doing his mocks for the leaving cert and there was some question phrased like what would be a typical diet of a bunch of weanling heifers for their first winter indoors or something along those lines. To this day, he claims that he wrote down a bale of high DMD silage in front of them and a 'bucket of stuff' every day and he still maintained he got his 2 marks for it!
 
I have a farming friend who was sent to boarding school to try and make an academic out of him (stupid idea) as he hated every day he every spent in school. Just couldn't deal with life indoors. Ag science was about the only subject he had any interest in, he was always a regular contributor in class. Anyways cutting to the chase, he was doing his mocks for the leaving cert and there was some question phrased like what would be a typical diet of a bunch of weanling heifers for their first winter indoors or something along those lines. To this day, he claims that he wrote down a bale of high DMD silage in front of them and a 'bucket of stuff' every day and he still maintained he got his 2 marks for it!
I asked 5th years what bolus was before Easter and the answer I got was “a big lump of a tablet”
 
Mid October born heifer off a lm x sh heifer born in mid October. Weighed this week at 305kg. Proves that you don't need a 800kg cow to produce a good calf. (Cow is 585kg and calving again in September)

She's going to be fed ad lib for 4 weeks along before she will be sold.

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Lucky to have had 3 dry days here since the big deluge. Things are slowly drying out but its tricky yet. We started letting cows and calves out in small groups today so that hopefully they will do less damage. We will link them all together when they have a full round of grazing done.

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Got more cows and calves back to grass yesterday. It was certainly the best growing day of the year in these parts even though we had some drizzle in the morning.

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Weaned this lad this morning. He's late September born and pushing 390kg on the scales 2 weeks ago. He's going to grass in galway next week.

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This cow had feet out on my rounds this morning. A small bit of help from me and a grand small heifer calf. Tube of probiotics and 10 mins later she is standing. The joys of the limousin.

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