What'S Your Winter Plan?

• Published date: 10 April 2024
• Publication title: West Coast Farming Times, The

Planning

Look back at the last few winters to consider what worked well and where you could make improvements. You can then write up your wintering plan based on this process.

Keep in mind how you will keep cows out of waterways and critical source areas and ensure cows can lie comfortably for as long as they need to.

The information in your wintering plan can also be added to your Freshwater Farm Plan. The West Coast Farm Plan Project is available to support farmers with these.

Cows require a minimum of 8-10 hours lying time per day, and prefer 10-12 hours, so it's important to ensure ground conditions are good enough for them to lie comfortably when they want to.

Prolonged wet weather means paddocks can...