16 January 2025

Preparing for calving on suckler farms

The Teagasc Future Beef Programme will host two important webinars next week in order to prepare farmers for the upcoming spring-calving season.

Commencing on Tuesday, January 21 at 8pm, the first webinar in the series: ‘A Farmers’ Guide to Pre-Calving’ centres on the cow pre-calving, focusing on topics such as body condition score (BCS), minerals and pre-calving vaccinations. Chaired by Aisling Molloy, Future Beef Advisor, this webinar will centre on essential pre-calving preparations and will feature: Prof. David Kenny, Teagasc; Emma Sargent, MSD; and Ed Curtin, Future Beef Farmer.

A graphic featuring the date of the webinar, headshot of speakers and Future Beef and Teagasc logos

A live calf is a vital part of every successful suckler system and topics on the night will include advice to achieve this pre-calving through:

Body condition scoring: Cows in good BCS at calving helps to reduce calving difficulty and also helps to get the cow back in calf quicker
Pre calving minerals: Important to produce lively calves at birth that are quick to stand and feed to get optimum immunity from colostrum
Pre-calving vaccines: Can reduce the incidence of scour and respiratory disease in the calf after birth, which can reduce mortality and save money and time for suckler farmers.

A Farmers’ Guide to Calving and Post-Calving

Focusing on the calf, the second night of the webinar series: ‘A Farmers’ Guide to Calving and Post-Calving’ is scheduled for January 23 at 8pm. Topics such as the first principles of calving, managing the calf’s first month and getting the cow back in calf will be explored at length.

A graphic featuring the date of the webinar, headshot of speakers and Future Beef and Teagasc logos

Chaired by James Mullane, Future Beef Advisor, this webinar will feature: Dr Doreen Corridan, NCBC; Dr John Donlon, Teagasc; and Michael Biggins, Future Beef Farmer.

A key target in a profitable suckling enterprise is achieving a calf per cow per year and calving the herd compactly each year. To achieve this, the webinar will focus on and answer some of these key questions:

Calving the suckler cow: Knowing when and if to intervene during calving, what the signs of a difficult calving are, what do you need to have in the calving shed? If you have a hard calving – how do you treat the cow afterwards?
Calf care: How can I reduce illness once my calf is born? If my calf does get sick, what can I do to minimise the effects?
Getting the cow back in calf: Ways to achieve a 365 day calving interval, through post calving nutrition, decisions around breeding and fertility and is synchronisation an option. For the latter, Michael Biggins will share his experiences.

Click here to register for this series of webinars