John Dunne November/December Update 2024
Latest weights
- Latest weights for weanlings
- Dairy beef calves are 5 months ahead of last years’ calves
- Store cattle also weighed
Irish Pollinator Monitoring Scheme
- Irish Pollinator Monitoring Scheme results from 2022
- Pollinator species found on the farm
- Popular plant species that pollinators visited
Animal Nutrition
John took a silage samples from the small silage pit on the farm and the results are shown below. It averaged 74.9% DMD with 14.45% crude protein at 19.6% dry matter, so the quality is good but it is quite wet. He is aware that the top of the pit has poorer quality silage so that is fed to the cows and the best silage is being fed to the weanlings as he loads the diet feeder.
The diet was balanced and John is feeding 1.5kg/head/day of a 13% crude protein ration mix to the weanlings. It consists of 67% rolled barley, 13.5% beet pulp, 9% soyabean meal, 9% molasses and 1% minerals.
The big silage pit has been opened recently and John will take another silage sample from it.
Figure 1: Silage sample results from small pit
Performance
John weighed the young stock on his farm on 29th November with the help of a technician form the BeefQuest project.
The 2024 suckler bullocks (40) averaged 269kg and had gained 0.63 kg/day since 27th August. Their average daily gain from birth was 0.84kg/day.
The 2024 suckler heifers (31) averaged 242kg and had gained 0.58 kg/day since 27th August. Their average daily gain from birth was 0.74 kg.day.
The 2024 born dairy beef bullocks (57) averaged 257kg and gained 0.75kg/day since birth. Similarly the dairy beef heifers (60) averaged 240kg and gained 0.71 kg/day since birth. These are currently 5 months ahead of the 2023 born calves that suffered a pneumonia outbreak as calves so John is very happy with them this year.
The 2023 born suckler bullocks (24) averaged 485kg and gained 0.7kg/day at grass since 6th April.
The 2023 suckler heifers (32) averaged 438kg and gained 0.61kg/day at grass since 6th April.
The 2023 dairy beef bullocks (64) averaged 444kg and gained 0.86kg/day since 6th April, while the dairy beef heifers (52) averaged 410kg and gained 0.71kg/day at grass.
Figure 2: Some of the cattle that were weighed on 29th November
Biodiversity
John is participating in the Irish Pollinator Monitoring Scheme through the National Biodiversity data Centre. A trained surveyor visits his farm once per month from April to August to record pollinators on the farm. Four recording methods are used;
- Pan trapping – these are wooden posts with brightly coloured bowls. Three are set up in fields and two in the field boundaries on the southern or/and eastern side. They are setup in the morning and collected after six hours;
- 1km fixed walk – 500m along the boundary and 500m in the field to get an estimate of pollinator numbers and to see what plants they are visiting or if they are looking for nesting sites;
- Floral surveys – 2m radius to see what plants are flowering at the time on the farm;
- Flower insect timed (FIT) counts – 50cm x 50cm observation plot to count how many insects visit a particular plant species in that plot within 10 minutes. An app is available for this so all people can partake even if not involved in monitoring scheme.
John recently received the 2022 report for his farm. The average number of individual pollinators recorded from pan traps across all farms in 2022 was 30. There was a total of 19 pollinators found in the pan traps on John’s farm. These consisted of 6 species of bumblebees, 7 species of solitary bees including the bronze furrow bee which is near threatened, 5 species of hoverflies including the common snout-hoverfly whose larvae feeds on cow dung and can help to improve soil health, and 7 species of butterfly.
Most of the pollinators were found within the field, with only slightly less being recorded along the field boundaries.
Figure 3: Pollinator species found on John’s farm (Source: National Biodiversity Data Centre)
A total of 6 plant species received visits from insect pollinators on your farm (bramble, common ragwort, thistle and dandelions received the majority of visits).
Figure 4: Plant species that received visits across the farm (Source: National Biodiversity Data Centre)
Actions that John can take to help pollinators on his farm include:
- Avoid cutting hedges annually – cutting on a three-year rotation, but don’t cut them all at once either to ensure there are always some flowers available to pollinators;
- Don’t remove dandelions – allow them to bloom as they are one of the best sources of food for insect pollinators, especially as they are one of the first wildflowers to emerge. They are an important food source for the first pollinators like bumblebee queens that emerge in the spring;
- Avoid using pesticides along field margins where possible and allow some patch of wildflowers like bramble to bloom if they are not causing an issue