Owl Farm

Farmwatch

Region: Waikato

January’s pasture growth measurement was about 15% ahead of the long-term average of 68 kg DM/ha/day, even with the slump towards the end of the month. February’s long- term average is 41 kg DM/ha/day, with early indications that it’s going to be a struggle to match that. High pasture covers have been carried forward into February. Once they have been depleted, culling is an option. Keep within the FEI limit by reducing or eliminating PKE and if necessary replace it with other supplement. PKE can be fed later to dry cows for BCS gain.

All farms now need to be monitoring their spore counts on chosen indicator paddocks. It’s recommended to sample from the same selected paddocks each time rather than those that the cows are about to graze. This is so trends in spore count over time can be monitored. FE prevention methods need to be implemented and their effectiveness monitored through testing blood serum for zinc on a small sample of cows ($11/cow sampled). Last year a survey of farms suggested that only 30% of cows were getting enough zinc despite farmers assuming their systems were working. Last year many cows showed FE damage to livers, while not showing clinical symptoms.