Cathal Irwin November/December Update 2024
Latest investments
- New cattle shed built
- Dungstead shed built
- Labour saving ideas for moving cattle in yard
Summary for 2024
- Farm summary report for 2024
- Grass grown for 2024 averaged 8.7 t DM/ha
- Paddock yields for the year
Weights, housing & sales
- Latest weights for home bred cattle
- Weanlings have taken over a month to settle after housing
- Finishing performance of cull cows
Health & Safety
Cathal has planned to upgrade his housing facilities on the farm for the last number of years. He is self-employed and works full time off farm, so he tries to be as time efficient as possible when on the farm.
When he took over the farm from his Dad, there was a 4 bay slatted tank with a straw lie back for housing. This year he has invested in a new 3 bay shed with a slatted tank and lie back area. Creep gates were installed in the pens to allow calves access to the lie back area after calving. He has installed lights and calving cameras in the shed to monitor cows at calving time, but also so that he can check on them in the shed when he is away for work and to see if they need silage. New lights have also been installed in the yard for safety reasons when carrying out yard work in the dark.
Figure 1: New cattle shed on the farm
Cathal also invested in a new dungstead shed, which can double up for machinery storage during the year.
Figure 2: New area installed for storing dung
While making changes to the yard, he wanted to future proof the yard, in order to simplify workload for himself. He put sleeves into the yard when the concrete was being poured so that poles can be added for moving cattle across the yard; both between sheds and to and from the cattle crush. He also bought second hand safety barriers which can be moved in and out of the yard as needed. All of these changes will make handling and housing of cattle safer, easier and hopefully more profitable for Cathal long term as it is providing extra lying, feeding and air space for cattle over winter.
Figure 3: Temporary barriers can be put in place for moving stock across the yard
Grassland
Cathal has been analysing his farm summary report on Pasturebase for 2024. He measured grass 25 times during the year and grew an average of 8.738t DM/ha so far this year. The average pre-grazing yield was 1528 kg DM/ha and this was as high as 2350 kg DM/ha in spring, but as low as 1065 kg DM/ha in autumn.
He reseeded 1.6ha (8%) of the farm this year. The average nitrogen/ha spread was 95 kg/ha, 91 kg/ha of which was chemical nitrogen. Grazing started on 5th April and magic day (when grass growth meets or exceeds demand) was not reached on the farm until 2nd May with the cold, wet spring.
The annual tonnage report on Pasturebase provides a breakdown of the grass grown on each paddock for the year, with yellow representing the yield for silage and green representing the yield from grazing. This allows Cathal to identify his poorer performing paddocks and can help him select any for reseeding next year. The paddock yields ranged from 4.26 t DM/ha (reseeded field) up to 13.53 t DM/ha.
Figure 4: Annual tonnage report 2024 for Cathal’s farm
Performance
Cathal weighed his home bred bulls (8) on 9th November. They averaged 354kg and gained 0.8 kg/day since 3rd August. Cathal was aware that they had taken over 4 weeks to settle after housing in mid-September and the rumen fluke burden would not have helped. They are ranging from 283 to 425kg and he will sell the lightest 2 bulls if they are not meeting their target weights.
Figure 5: Pen of heavier bulls that will be finished under 16 months of age
The home bred heifers (6) averaged 334kg on 9th November, after gaining 0.87 kg/day since 3rd August. They ranged from 210kg to 372kg.
Four cows were finished on 4th October. They averaged 410kg carcass weight at 108.6 months of age. They graded R=4- on average and made €1995/head.