The prolonged summer dry should have us all into summer management mode. There are three things that should be well under way.
1. Prevention treatment for facial eczema - whether using zinc bullets, water treatments, spraying or a combination of these. Keep watching your local spore counts to know when to increase the dosage rates for peak risk time.
2. Monitor BCS - starting from mid-February body condition scoring needs to occur every two to four weeks to pick up trends and identify animals that may need drying off to ensure they are the right weight for calving next season. Use the Body Condition Scoring book as a tool to help get your eye back in. Better still, arrange for a neighbour to do yours and swap results.
3. Plan culling of surplus/empty cows to reduce the feed demand. Tactical supplement usage can be beneficial to match feed supply and demand. The number of cows you can cull is often based around pregnancy test results which could be a bit higher this season due to a low submission rate in spring. Making a plan can help take the stress out of the decision making and allow you to be more proactive in farm management.
