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John Barry November/December Update 2024

Autumn calving & breeding plans

Autumn calving & breeding plans

  • Autumn calving update
  • Bull choices for autumn herd
  • Replacement heifers bought in
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Herd health at housing

Herd health at housing

  • Weaning of the spring herd is complete
  • Dosing, vaccinating and castration carried out pre-housing
  • Watch video of John discussing his herd health at housing
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Latest sales

Latest sales

  • One cow culled
  • Finishing performance of 6 heifers
  • Cattle sales finished as TB test is due
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Breeding

Autumn calving progressed well on the farm this year since it started on 23rd August, with most calves born outside thanks to the mild weather. John has had no health issues with calves so far, although the cows were vaccinated against IBR pre-calving as it has been historically an issue on the farm. These antibodies would have passed to the calves through the colostrum and act as a preventative against IBR. Only 3 cows are left to calve in November and no calves were lost to date. Breeding will start on 1st November.

Autumn cows and calves at grass

Figure 1: Autumn cows and calves at grass

John has selected the following bulls for use on the autumn cows:

  • Sliabh Felim Sterling (LM8929) will be used on heifers
  • Drumline S (LM9577) and Knockmoyle Loki (CH4159) will be used on first calvers
  • An De Beauffaux (BB4438) and Clenagh Superior ET (CH8968) will be used on more terminal cows
  • Drumline S 1185 (LM9577) and Sliabh Felim Sterling (LM8929) will be used on the more maternal cows

LM8929 has a heifer calving difficulty figure of 5.3% at 74% reliability so John is happy to use him on his heifers. He is a well-balanced bull for both maternal and terminal traits so John could keep replacement heifers from him. Some of his main figures are as follows;

  • €169 on replacement index
  • €156 on terminal index
  • +6.9 kg daughter milk
  • +2.63 days daughter calving interval (although a negative figure is preferable)
  • +30.4kg carcass weight
  • 43 carcass conformation
  • -1.14 days on age at finish

LM9577 is relatively easy calving at 3% cow calving difficulty with 74% reliability. He is €192 on the replacement index and €194 on the terminal index. He is +4.6kg for daughter milk, +1.1 on daughter calving interval, 38.3kg on carcass weight, 2.69 on carcass conformation and 2.72 days on age at finish. He will breed good terminal cattle, but could also produce potential replacement heifers if crossed with John’s milkier cows.

CH4159 is a terminal bull that John has used for the last number of years and he is very happy with him. He has a terminal index of €159 and is 6.5% cow calving difficulty at 99% reliability. He is 36.1 kg for carcass weight, 2.46 on conformation and +3.44 days on age at finish. He is -4.4kg for daughter milk so John avoids keeping replacements from him.

Both BB4438 and CH8968 have a cow calving difficulty figure of 9 to 9.9% at 89 to 99% reliability, so John will be careful with the cows that he uses him on. They both have good terminal traits with a terminal index of €98 to €137 respectively, a carcass weight figure of 29.8 to 46.7kg and a carcass conformation of 2.57 to 2.68. They have low daughter milk figures so John will not breed replacements from them.

John also bought in 4 heifers as replacements which will be bred with the autumn herd.

Breeding heifer

Figure 2: One of the bought in heifers who is +7.4kg for daughter milk, 17.1kg for carcass weight and -9.02 days on age at finish


Animal Health

Weaning of the spring calves is now complete on John’s farm and they are grazing the silage fields as part of the last rotation. They will be housed over the coming month and have been vaccinated, dosed and some of the males were castrated. They’re eating 2kg of ration/head/day.

Suckler cows are not routinely dosed on the farm and faecal egg samples showed that there were low egg counts, so they do not need to be dosed. They did however show a ‘low positive’ result from rumen fluke, which is not usually an issue. John has noticed three cows that were quite runny and are a little thin so he will selectively dose them for rumen fluke to be safe.

The sheds have been power washed and any necessary repairs were carried out in the autumn.

Watch the video below where John discusses his stock health in the lead up to housing. 


Performance

One cow was finished on 1st October at 400kg carcass weight. She graded U=2+ at 30 months of age and made €2040.

John also finished 6 heifers on the same day. They averaged 353kg at 26.6 months of age and graded U-3-. They averaged €1932 per head.

John expects that his stock sales are almost finished for the year. A TB test is due on the farm and as it’s an issue in the locality, he is happy that he will manage the remaining stock on the farm in case the herd is restricted.