John Barry May/June Update 2024
Spring 2024 review
- ICBF calving performance report
- Bull will be pulled in mid-July
- Autumn calving will start on 12th August
Fodder plans
- Fodder budget update – 1250 bales needed
- Steps John has taken as he won’t have enough feed next winter
- Second cut silage closed & fertilised
Breeding
Spring calving finished on 6th May this year and lasted just over 11 weeks in total since the first calf was born on 14th February. 47 cows calved in total this spring, and a further 32 calve din the autumn resulting in 79 in total.
Looking at the KPIs, the calving interval was 378 days which is below the national average of 390 days. Mortality at birth was low at 1.3% but mortality at 28 days was 5.1% as a result of a scour and pneumonia outbreak in the spring calves. The calves per cow figure is 0.91 and only one cow did not calf in the period. The spring 6 week calving rate was 49% and the autumn 6 week calving rate was 47%. 23 cows were culled in total which gave a 29% replacement rate – mainly due to lower numbers in calf from the autumn herd. Two cows slipped from one calving season to the next and 59% of calves born were from AI bulls.
Figure 1: ICBF beef calving report 2024
Breeding for the spring herd will finish in mid-July when the bull will be removed, and this will help avoiding any cows calving in May 2025.
Figure 2: The bull will be pulled in mid-July
The autumn herd are due to start calving from 12th August.
Animal Nutrition
John has calculated his fodder budget for winter 2024. He will require 1250 silage bales at 25% dry matter in to house the following stock for 5 months:
- 80 suckler cows
- 30 autumn calves
- 47 spring weanlings
- 55 store cattle
He has 100 bales left over from 2023 and made approximately 400 bales in his first cut silage. However this means he needs to make a further 750 bales to have enough fodder. He does not think that this will be feasible and is making plans to reduce the stock that he will have next winter:
- He had sown 1.2ha of whole crop silage (barley and peas, under sown with grass) for extra bulk but has had to graze this due to a grass shortage
- Second cut silage is closed and fertilised for cutting in July (2500 gallons slurry & 65 units protected urea/acre)
- Any spring cows that are not in calf will be sold in the autumn
- The autumn males are being left as bulls so that they can be sold as bull weanlings or finished under 16 months of age
- John sold 16 store bullocks and 3 cows in June to reduce demand at grass so that he might cut strong paddocks
Figure 3: Weaned autumn calves are getting ration at grass
Performance
10 cows were finished on 29th April. They were 412kg carcass weight on average, graded R+3= and made €2039/head.
John bought 2 news heifers on 3rd May to join the spring herd.
The 2022 autumn bullocks (18) were weighed on 7th June and averaged 494kg. They gained 0.46 kg/day since their previous weighing on 2nd December.
The 2023 spring bulls (18) were weighed on the same day and averaged 428kg.
The 2023 spring heifers (19) averaged 374kg.
16 bullocks were sold on 14th June. They averaged 527kg live weight and made €3.35/kg on average.
Figure 4: One of the bullocks that were sold