John Barry September/October Update 2024
Scanning one herd and calving another
- Scanning results
- Autumn calving is underway
- Autumn replacement heifers selected
Planing for the autumn
- Grass growth is back 1 t DM/ha across the farm
- Fodder update
- Autumn grass management
Weights & sales
- Latest store cattle sales
- Spring 2024 weanlings weighed
- 200 day weights are ahead of target
Breeding
The spring herd were scanned on 29th August. 61 females were bred this spring and 51 were scanned in calf, resulting in an 84% conception rate over 13 weeks of a breeding season. John will wean the empty cows and feed them ration at grass before selling them.
Ten of the autumn cows have calved so far and they are progressing well. John had a strenuous pull with one calf, who’s sire was 23.9% cow calving difficulty but fortunately the calf is alive and doing well. 27 females are due in total and he expects to finish calving by early November.
John has also looked at picking his autumn replacement heifers. He has 3 selected that range from €113 to €142 on the replacement index and are all 4 star plus. Their daughter milk ranges from 2.4kg to 7.3kg, carcass weight is 10.kg to 28.9kg and their calving interval is from -3.26 to +2.1 days.
Grassland
Grass growth is back 1 t DM/ha on John’s farm this year (7.614 t DM/ha vs. 6.6 t DM/ha). He is well aware of this as he has been monitoring the fodder situation since spring.
He now has 646 bales of silage made in 2024, plans to make an extra 15 bales this month and has 15 bales of last year’s silage remaining. He is also buying straw which can be fed to dry cows. Barley straw is costing €35/bale from the field but he can buy some oaten straw cheaper. If John feeds 1 kg of ration to the autumn cows for 3 months, 1kg/head to the calves, 1.5kg/head to the spring weanlings and 1kg/head to the stores he will have enough feed to last 4 months for 70 cows, 66 calves, and 30 store cattle.
In the meantime John put the creep feeder out with the spring weanlings on 24th August. He is planning to wean the stronger Charolais spring bulls for sale, and he is feeding the empty cows and heifers at grass. His plan is to sell the culls in September and that the bulls will be gone in October.
Figure 1: Creep feeder is out with the spring cows and calves since August
Thankfully grass growth has recovered on the farm and John is making the most of the settled weather to spread 25-30 units N/acre across the farm. This will help him to build covers for the autumn and if he can extend the grazing season it will help to reduce his winter feed demand. The silage ground is now back in the rotation and the spring cows and calves have moved up there. John expects that this will take pressure off grass on the home block and will still give him an opportunity to graze the silage ground again this autumn.
Performance
John sold 25 store cattle through the mart in August. 13 bullocks were sold on 23rd August, at an average weight of 502kg and they averaged €3.17/kg.
12 heifers were sold on 9th August and they weighed 445kg on average. They made an averaged of €3.41/kg.
Figure 2: Some of the remaining store cattle
The 2024 spring born heifers (21) were weighed on 2nd September. They averaged 212kg and gained 1.2kg/day since birth.
The 2024 spring bulls (24) weighed 254kg on the same day, after gaining 1.38kg/day since birth.
Figure 3: Bull #1854 averaged 319kg on 2nd September, after gaining 1.36 kg/day since birth
The weights are ahead of the 2023 weights, despite the crypto outbreak during the spring.
The ICBF weaning performance report shows that the heifers are ahead of the target 250kg as they weigh at 278 kg at 200 days of age. Similarly the bulls’ target is 300kg at 200 days of age and they are averaging 319kg. The average cow weight was 712kg which gave an overall weaning efficiency figure of 42% - right on target.