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Ed Curtin November/December Update 2024

Breeding

Breeding

  • Calving to date
  • Breeding autumn calving cows
  • AI bulls selected
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Performance

Performance

  • Finishing 2023 born steers/heifers
  • 2024 born calf to beef animals
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Animal Health

Animal Health

  • Dosing suckler cows
  • Vaccination for weanlings and sucklers
  • Selecting a dosing product
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Breeding


On November 1st there was one cow left to calve from the 23 cows on the farm. Calving went well on the farm with no major issues to report. The breeding season has also kicked off on the farm with 8 out of the 22 cows calved have been served across the first 7 days of breeding. The farm uses 100% AI - LM8929, LM9577 were the Limousin AI sires and BB5214, BB4438 and OHB the Belgian Blue AI sires used. The vet handled cow’s pre breeding and any cows that were identified with problems, CIDRS were put into them. CIDRS will help to get cows cycling and tighten both the breeding and subsequent calving season on the farm. Cows are assessed a few times daily for signs of heat and inseminated accordingly with a local technician. Cows are all in doors and on rubber mats, so observing cows for signs of heat is generally straight forward on the farm.

Photo 1: Sucklers housed with the breeding season now underway on the farm

 

Performance


The suckler bred 2023 autumn bred weanlings have been sold off the farm since July. The next group of animals to be sold are animals from the calf to beef enterprise on the farm - which are currently indoors for finishing. These mainly consist of Angus and Hereford steers along with a small number of heifers. They were purchased as calves in spring of 2023 from nearby dairy herds and reared on the farm. This group of stock were housed the 31st of August for finishing and Edmond predicts they will be finished off the farm by around November 10th. The plan was to get them finished in a 60-70 day period. To allow for this turn around, steers were fed 9.5 kg’s of finishing nuts daily and the heifers were on 7.5 kg’s of a finishing nut daily along with good quality silage. They were weighed at the start of the finishing period and again they will be weighed pre slaughter to calculate their daily liveweight gain and kill out percentages. Edmond predicts that the steers may have achieved up to 1.5 kg’s of liveweight gain daily which is a very good performance for these animals.

Edmond has a group of 2024 born calf to beef animals on the farm, some of these have been housed while a second batch are still at grass. They are due to be weighed but on initial observations they seem to be thriving very well and Edmond is happy with performance. The majority of these calves were purchased as young calves with some purchased reared. They consist of Angus, Hereford along with some continental breeds. The aim is to kill some of the continental breeds as bulls U16 months next year.

Photo 2: A group of finishing steers nearly ready for slaughter

Animal Health


The 2024 born calf to beef weanlings were vaccinated twice three weeks apart with Pneumovac which treats for respiratory diseases pre housing. Some of these animals have since been housed with the remainder still at grass – they will stay at grass until the finishing cattle are sold off the farm.

The cows were vaccinated for IBR live the first week in October and were also vaccinated for BVD the second week in October. Cows were dosed for Noromectin Pour-On around housing and will be treated for other internal parasites should they arise over the housing period.