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Ger McSweeney September/October 2024

Animal Health

Animal Health

  • Bulls fully weaned and housed
  • Heifers currently on nose paddles
  • Stress free weaning, all calves vaccinated for RSV and PI3 prior to weaning
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Animal Nutrition

Animal Nutrition

  • Fodder budget and grazing update
  • Sufficient fodder reserves for the winter
  • Feeding rates for weanling bulls
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Performance

Performance

  • Results of 9 2023 born heifers recently slaughtered
  • Weights of bulls back slightly in 2024
  • Coccidiosis on the farm has affected liveweight performance
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Animal Health


15 spring born bulls were recently weaned on the farm. Calves were vaccinated with Bovilis Bovipast which protects against pneumonia strains - PI3 and RSP. Calves received their primary shot followed by a booster 4 weeks later. Calves had full immunity 2 weeks after they received their booster vaccine. Ger began to wean calves after they had reached full immunity from the vaccination protocol. Nose paddles for weaning were used and Ger found they were very successful for weaning. Paddles were put on the bull calves while remaining with their dams. Bull calves were removed from the herd a few days later and paddles were removed again. These bulls have now been housed on farm. Bulls were last weighed on the 20th of September and averaged 329 kilograms or 1.21 kg of LWG since birth.

Heifers currently have nose paddles on while still grazing out doors in the last rotation. They will be separated from the dams in the coming days and housed on a straw bed for the winter months. Heifers were also weighed on the 20th of September and on average weighed 296 kilograms or 1.16 kg of LWG since birth.

Ger commented that weaning the cows while outdoors had many health benefits including less cases of mastitis from cows compared to weaning indoors. He will continue to use nose paddles when weaning in the future. He found weanlings were less stressed around weaning due to using nose paddles and also they were fed meal pre and post weaning in line with the national beef welfare scheme. 

Figure 1: Spring born bulls recently housed , consumed 2kg meal and silage

 

Animal Nutrition


Ger has completed a fodder budget and estimates that he will have sufficient fodder in the yard to see him through the winter months. Autumn grazing has went according to plan and Ger managed to keep grass in the diet which has helped reduce his winter fodder demand coming into the winter months. There is 70% of the farm now closed at this stage. The plan is to keep remaining stock at grass until the end of October. This consists of heifer calves and dry cows. Some cull cows are also at grass on a separate block and they will be housed shortly also. The plan is to introduce meal to these cull cows and finish them off the farm over the winter.

Very little silage has been fed to date, until recently when the bull calves and dry cows were housed. Dry cows are on silage only and those cows recently weaned, Ger is very happy with body condition on them. Cows will be regularly assessed for body condition and any cows that are becoming too thin or over fat will be managed accordingly prior to calving next spring.

Bulls are currently on a 2 kg’s/head/day of a 16% protein concentrates along with silage. They will be increased to 4 kg’s/day over the coming weeks and then switched to a finishing meal in early January. The plan is to have these bulls finished under 16 months of age off the farm. Silage is due to be tested and the best quality silage fed to the finishing cattle. Bulls will be weighed on a regularly basis to assess performance over the winter months.

Bulls so far this year have only been dosed once, they have been faecal sampled a few times and results indicated that no dose was required. Once housed again all animals will be faecal egg tested and dosed according to results. Ger has followed this policy over the last few years and now only doses animals based on faecal egg results.

Photo: Dry cows recently housed - DAMS of the 2024 bulls

Performance


The first week in October the last remaining 2023 born heifers were finished off the farm. They killed out at 346 kilograms carcass weight and averaged 20.4 months of age at the time of finishing. There were 4 U grade heifers and 5 R grade heifers.

There was 4 cull cows also finished the first week in October and had an average carcass of 379 kilograms.

This year there were more bulls than heifers born on the farm, this creates an opportunity to introduce additional replacements into the herd in 2025. Ger is looking at the option of culling older cows and replacing these cows with good quality breeding heifers as he will have a surplus of heifers for breeding in 2025.

There was also an outbreak of coccidiosis on the farm which affected performance in some of the 2024 born calves and also some of 1 ½ year old heifers. This issue has since been resolved and Ger noted that cattle liveweight for the time of year are back as a result. However, with good quality silage fed to bulls along with concentrates Ger thinks that they will compensate in liveweight and should reach their target weight when finished. There was never an issue with coccidiosis previously on the farm, so Ger is looking at options to prevent this issue for next year.