Kay O'Sullivan March/April Update 2024
Calving progress & breeding plans
- Calving season is underway
- AI bulls picked for 2024 breeding season
- Inbreeding check results on ICBF helped with bull choice
Silage plans for 2024
- Fodder budget for 2024 completed
- Length of winter period extended to 200 days to allow for any long winters in future
- 650 bales required for next winter
Finishing performance
- 2023 born yearlings weighed on 13th April
- One bullock and 1 heifer finished organically
- Two cull cows finished conventionally
Breeding
Calving is progressing well on the farm and is expected to be finished before the 20th May. No difficult calvings have taken place, despite the good body condition of the cows pre-calving. 19 cows have calved and produced 17 live calves.
Figure 1: Calved cow with her calf at foot
Kay has been planning her breeding season for 2024 which will start on 1st June. Three cows have been pre-selected for culling due to their age and will not be bred. There are 6 heifers that will be potentially kept as replacements, along with 23 cows to be bred.
The maternal traits for the herd are excellent with all females at 4 or 5 stars on the replacement index. He herd index is €135, with 5.6 kg daughter milk, 0.03 docility, -6.08 days on daughter calving interval. The greatest area for improvement is on carcass weight which is -2kg so this is what Kay is focusing on this year.
Figure 2: Herd Eurostar figures for March 2024
Kay has selected 3 possible bulls for breeding with her heifers – ESH, KYA and AA4631. Her priority for these is that they are less than 7% on heifer calving difficulty at over 90% reliability as the heifers will be calving at 244 months of age. They may also produce potential replacement heifers.
- ESH has a replacement index of €160. He is 4.6% for heifer calving difficulty at 98% reliability. His daughter milk figure is 5.9kg, daughter calving interval is -5.63 days, carcass weight is -2.7kg and age at finish is -9.22 days.
- KYA has a replacement index of €152. He is 3.8% for heifer calving difficulty at 99% reliability. His daughter milk figure is 5.5kg, daughter calving interval is -6.93 days, carcass weight is -2.5kg and age at finish is -12.4 days.
- AA4631 has a replacement index of €162. He is 5.1% for heifer calving difficulty at 97% reliability. His daughter milk figure is 4.1kg, daughter calving interval is -7.32 days, carcass weight is 9.7kg and age at finish is -20.96 days.
The cows above €153 on the replacement index will be bred to AA5280 and the cows under will be bred to AA7452.
- AA5280 (Coolrain Patriarch) has a replacement index of €200 and a terminal index of €92. The beef cow calving difficulty is 2.8% at 94% reliability. He is 5.4kg on daughter milk and -6.13 days for daughter calving interval. For terminal traits he is 8.4kg on carcass weight, 0.67 on conformation and -15.47 days on age at finish.
- AA7452 (Te Mania Nebo N424) has a replacement index of €155 and a terminal index of €98. The beef cow calving difficulty is 1.8% at 56% reliability. He is 8.7kg on daughter milk and -3.74 days for daughter calving interval. For terminal traits he is 9.5kg on carcass weight, 0.65 on conformation and -16.66 days on age at finish.
As Kay has a lot of Angus breeding in her herd, inbreeding is a common concern. She inputted the bull details into the inbreeding section on ICBF to avoid any potential issues. The results can show the degree of inbreeding and can be interpreted as follows;
- - 25%: Two Common Grandparents
- - 5%: Half Brother - Half Sister Mating
- - 5%: Grandfather - Granddaughter Mating
- - 25%: Full Brother - Full Sister Mating
- - 25%: Parent - OffSpring Mating
As can be seen below there is a lot of ESH and KYA breeding in the herd already so Kay will avoid using these bulls on related cows and heifers.
Figure 3: ICBF inbreeding results for the bulls that Kay selected
Lambing has gone well and resulted in 60 lambs from 27 ewes (2.2 lambs/ewe).
Figure 4: Ewes with lambs at foot
Animal Nutrition
The cows and calves are at grass full time by day, with the remaining cows to calve in a sheltered paddock close to the yard. The last ewes to lamb will be let out to grass as soon as the weather conditions are suitable.
Kay has been examining her fodder budget for 2024 and while she typically budgeted on a 120 day winter, she will be adjusting this to a 200 day winter going forward. Fortunately she had enough feed to get through the extended winter period of 2023/2024 but she would like to build back up reserves to have them in future.
This year her fodder budget will be for 200 days for the cattle and 60 days for the ewes. She is planning for 25 cows, 25 yearlings and 25 weanlings, along with 30 ewes as their number has reduced over the last 2 years. That means that she will need 650 bales of silage at 25% dry matter for this coming winter. She currently has some silage ground closed up and will be aiming to good excellent quality silage from this before the end of May. The older silage ground will be left until June so that poorer quality silage will be made for the dry cows pre-calving to avoid any increase in body condition before calving. Kay will be making grass silage, red clover silage and multi species silage, while also growing a crop of redstart for the finishing cattle and weanlings again this winter.
Figure 5: The weanlings are now finished grazing the redstart forage crop
Performance
Kay weighed the weanlings on 13th April. The bullocks (14) averaged 370kg and gained 0.48 kg/day since 4th January. They ranged from 318 to 473kg and their average birth date was 6th April 2023.
The heifers (6) averaged 335kg and gained 0.39 kg/day since 4th January. They ranged from 277 to 400kg and their average birth date was 12th April 2023.
One heifer was finished on 13th March at 31.5 months of age. She was expected to calve this spring but must have lost an embryo along the way. She was 353kg carcass weight and graded R=4+ making €2103. A bullock was finished on the same day and was 291kg carcass weight, grading O=3= at 23.7 months and he made €1682.
Two cows were also finished conventionally on the same day that were not in calf. One graded R+5- and was 496kg carcass weight, making €2134. The second cow graded R-4+ at 388kg carcass weight and made €1668.
Figure 6: A photo from 2023 of the cow that was 496kg carcass weight