James Skehan July/August Update 2024

Latest update

• 100% conception rate for heifers to first serve after synchronisation!
• Heifer management pre-breeding
• Bull being removed this month

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Red clover silage

• Second cut red clover silage complete
• Yield was lower than expected
• Slurry applied at 3000 gallons/acre

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Finishing heifers & feed stocks

• Managing the finishing heifers
• One non-performing heifer sold live
• Fodder budget update – feed position is good for the winter

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Breeding

20 cows and 6 heifers were bred in total this spring. James used a synchronisation programme for breeding the heifers and some cows.

He had tail painted the heifers and watched for repeats but did not see any. They were all served on 4^th June with SA4604 (Knottown Roy). James decided to scan them 38 days later on 12^th July for peace of mind and was delighted to find that they are all in calf! Typical expected conception rates for heifers through a synchronisation programme are 70% so James is delighted with 100%. The heifers were kept on a level plane of nutrition at grass and had been given a mineral bolus pre-breeding. They were also vaccinated against leptospirosis. The heifers were kept in a group on their own so that James could handle them easily and averaged 402kg on 22^nd May. He had originally planned to breed them in April but they only weighed 358 kg on average on 16^th April. They gained an average of 1.22kg/day over that month which helped them to achieve their target breeding weights.

Figure 1: Two of the in-calf heifers

The bull will be removed from the cows this month, by 23^rd July at the latest to allow a 12 week breeding season. He will join the bullocks on the out farm.

Clover

James cut the red clover silage for the second time on at 5cm off the ground. He rowed it up straight away after cutting to minimise any leaf shatter and baled in on 14^th July. It yielded 29 bales in total (average of 4.6 bales/acre).

Pre-cutting James noticed that the crop wasn’t as green as expected and after walking it discovered that the clover hasn’t grown as well as expected. He thinks this may have been down to the heavy first cut and not enough light reached the clover for it to grow.

Figure 2: Red clover silage crop pre-cutting

The crop was given 3000 gallons of slurry/acre to replace the nutrient offtakes, which was spread using the dribble bar. For every five tonnes of dry matter (8 bales/acre) removed, 12 units of P and 100 units of K per acre are required.

James then hopes to take a third cut from it in early September. He also has the option to mulch the crop for the fourth cut to help light into the sward over winter if needs be.

Animal Nutrition

James is finishing 3 heifers at grass. They were born in 2022 and they averaged 500kg on 10^th June. A fourth heifer was meant to be finished with the group but after weighing her in June James discovered she was only 426kg and gained no weight since March. As she would have been turning 30 months in early August, James decided to sell her live instead of feeding her on. She made €1170 at 425kg live weight (€2.75/kg).

The oldest heifer remaining will turn 30 months in early September so James is planning to have them finished by then, allowing for approx. 60 days feeding from 1^st June. They were built up gradually on ration to 4kg twice daily on 10^th June. As there are only 3 of them, it is trickier to manage grass with them so James is planning to move them onto after grass, graze them in front of the store cattle where possible and has increased their ration to 5kg/head/day which is fed in 2 splits.

Visually, they look quite healthy and none of them are coughing. They were treated with on 7^th March against fluke.

Figure 3: Finishing heifers at grass

James will need 490 bales of silage for next winter. He made 201 bales in the first cut, has 71 bales left over from 2023 and made a further 44 bales from surplus paddocks on 6^th June. He baled the red clover silage on 7^th July and it yielded 29 bales. The grass silage was baled on 13^th July and it yielded 80 bales. This means he now has 425 bales of silage in the yard. The remaining 65 will be made up from a combination of the third cut of red clover silage and surplus paddocks.