September/October 2023 Cathal Irwin
Grassland
- Due to the continuous wet weather – bull calves are weaned and housed
- Cows with heifer calves struggling to graze off covers – they may need to be housed shortly
- Silage will be sampled as soon as possible
Breeding
- Breeding update – Ch bull and 5 cows culled
- Scanning results
- The next generation of heifers
Grassland
It has been very difficult to manage the suckler herd at grass during September and into October as a result of all the wet weather. While there is plenty of grass, ground conditions are the concern . Cathal took the decision to house the 7 cows with bull calves and wean them at the end of September. These calves were born in January and early February and averaged over 350 kgs in September . Cathal intends to finish the bulls at under 16 months and keeping them out on wet grass would negatively impact their daily live-weight performance .
As of the first week in October , the 12 weanling heifers and their mothers are still out on grass. Cathal could wean the calves but instead has decided to try and keep the group out and get the farm grazed off by mid October. Cows are needed to graze some of the heavier covers. He is moving the group every 2-3 days . Graze outs are not what he would like but there is no choice only to move on quickly in order to avoid more damage. If ground condition get worse Cathal will have to house all .
A grass measurement taken on October 4th highlights a farm cover of 1338kgs/DM/ha which is too high as a closing cover. Ideally this should be closer to 500kgs/Dm/ha. If ground conditions improve, Cathal could let the 7 dry cows back out to graze and increase the demand/day. With the unnaturally mild weather , growth has remained over normal for this time of year .Grass growth was 40kgs/DM/ha/day which is still matching demand. There are 33 days of grass ahead which is too much for this farm. Weather dictates how the remainder of October will go from a grassland point of view. Hopefully, the rain will stop and allow the farm to be grazed off during the remainder of the month.
Cathal will test the silage as soon as possible. He has 2 main crops of silage. An early crop cut in May which should be top quality and will be fed to the priority stock . A later crop of second cut will also be tested and will be fed to the dry cows.
Performance
As mentioned earlier Cathal has 7 weanling bulls which he intends to finish as u16 month old bulls . Despite being weaned and housed , the average daily gain has remained strong. The bulls were weighed on the 30th September and are averaging 399kgs. They have gained 1.49kgs/day since there last weighing in July. This is very good performance despite the wet summer and autumn. The group have averaged 1.43kgs ADG since birth.
Cathal is currently feeding 3 kgs of meal/head/day. This will be increased to 6kgs towards the end of October.
All weanlings heifers and bulls have been dosed and vaccinated
Picture Weanling bulls averaging 399kgs on 30/09/2023
Breeding
The Ch bull had to be culled as a result of poor temperament. While the bull ticked the boxes for producing quality calves and was easy calving , Cathal did not want to take any risk in safety terms for himself or anybody else. The right call was made. He will have to replace the bull and will take plenty of time to shop around. However, he would like to have the bull sourced and settled well in advance of next years breeding season.
Cathal culled 5 cows which is a high percentage in a herd of 20. He purchased 3 maiden heifers and will need 2 more. Purchasing suitable high index value replacement heifers is a challenge. To date 14 cows and 3 heifers have been scanned in calf with the calving season starting in early January.
Picture: Cathal's heifers are well balanced excellant carcass milk and daughter calving interval figures.