Ciaran Bartley Farm Update October 2024

I am nearing the end of feeding my 20 month old Friesian steers at grass for finish. They are eating 6kg of meal per day since mid-July and I will have fed around 600kg to them by the time they are slaughtered. I had intended on killing all 45 on one day but will hold back 10 of them for a few more weeks feeding as they are a bit short on fat score yet. The weather is playing ball with me this year so I should be able to graze away until Halloween with this bunch without much bother.

The 45 bullocks will average around 530-550kg liveweight and should kill out at around 265kg carcass weight. This is still behind the 275kg carcass I hit in 2022 but is better than the 251 kg carcass I achieved in 2023. The effects of 2023 are still to be seen on last year’s cattle but they did make up ground in the past 4 weeks outside with a better thrive seen in September than throughout most of the summer.

My red clover reseed has been grazed with calves and I may get another grazing off it later in the autumn or early winter depending on how much rain falls. It is important to have the sward as bare as possible at closing to allow light get through to the stolons. I will target cutting this field for silage in May with no early grazing planned. As this soil contains a high proportion of clay, I may use chemical 0-7-30 to give it the necessary P&K rather than risking damage to soil structure while using a slurry tank.

My weanlings are all now eating meal. I put the heaviest back on 1.5kg per day last week having kept them on grass only since July. My lightest weanlings remained on a small amount of meal throughout the summer. I am very pleased with this year’s weanlings. While I have not weighed them recently, I plan to put them up on the scales at housing time. Visually I would say the majority of my weanlings are over 240 kg already with some being near 300kg so they are well ahead of target for the time of year.

I will house the remaining finishing stock in the next week. Favourable weather and better thrive encouraged me to hold them out a bit longer than planned but I see that as a positive in terms of less slurry capacity used up and less silage being fed.

I’m awaiting my silage results and I’m hopeful of a good result. My first cut was completed early and my red clover silage, while a bit wet was an extremely leafy crop.