11 February 2025

Watch: A glimpse inside Newford’s busy February

February is a busy month on the Newford Farm, writes Michael Fagan who fills us in on the day-to-day management of the herd.

Over a 10-week period, 86 cows will calve at our new base in Co. Roscommon. Whereas much of the focus over the winter months centred on ensuring the cows were in the optimum condition to calve, the calving season is well and truly underway now and is our firm focus.

In preparation for calving and using our AI serve dates, cows were housed and penned on the basis of planned calving date. Over the course of the winter, these cows were offered 66 DMD silage; a strategy that works for use to prevent over conditioning but to also allow the growing and finishing cattle have access to the best quality silage available.

Take a glimpse inside the happenings at Newford in the below video:

When cows are close to calving, judged on the basis of bagging up and calving pin slippage, they are moved to a straw-bedded calving pen. Before this, cows are housed on slats which receive daily applications of lime to prevent bug build up and to keep their udders clean. This also serves to prevent the transfer of pathogens from the slatted housing to the calving pens.

At Newford, we pay a lot of attention to the care of the newborn calf. Not only do we ensure they receive adequate quantities of colostrum to protect their health, navels are dipped to prevent joint ill and other infections. All of the calving pens are kept as clean as possible and the cow and her newborn calf will reside here until we are sure they are adequately bonded and sucking sufficiently.

In order to prepare cows and calves for turnout, pairs are then held in straw-bedded group pens for a number of days and, when strong enough – provided conditions allow – cow and calf pairs are turned to grass during the daytime. A number of cow and calf pairs were turned out last week by day, and this is a great saving for the farm in terms of labour and straw usage.

Find out more about the Newford Herd here.

The Newford Farm is enrolled in the Teagasc Future Beef Programme. Find out more about the Future Beef Programme here.