Ken Gill November/December Update 2024
Latest update
- Breeding season finished
- 76 females bred in 5 weeks
- Plans to invest in automated heat detection system
Grass review 2024
- Farm summary report 2024
- 78 t DM/ha grown on average in 2024
- Latest grass wedge
Weighing update
- Spring cattle weighed on 30th October
- Store cattle also weighed going onto forage crop
- The stores will be weighed again when they come off the crop
Breeding
Breeding started on 28th October and Ken bred 16 heifers and 60 cows between then and 30th November (5 weeks). He had 5 repeat serves during that time and is already aware of a few repeats since then. Originally he had planned to breed 80 females so he is happy with this result and will not be AI’ing anymore.
Figure 1: Cows and heifers lying in straw bedded shed
Figure 2: Calves have access to a separate lie back area from the cows
During that time, Ken made the decision that he will be buying an automated heat detection system for next year’s breeding season. He had been considering it, but the significant investment was putting him off. However this year he considered the time he was spending on heat detection which was taking 1-2 hours/day over 5 weeks, amounting to 35-70 hours over a 5 week breeding period, plus the time spent watching them before breeding started. After a discussion with his family he decided that if there is a better way of doing things, it should be done! He feels that he will have a higher degree of certainty at breeding time with the technology and it will also give him the option to use sexed semen in the herd.
He is looking at the Sensehub system and will qualify for a 60% grant on the system through the TAMS 3 Organic Capital Investment Scheme (OCIS). Rough costings are as follows:
- Base station: €3500 (TAMS reference cost: €2833)
- Collars: 80 x €125 = €10,000 (TAMS reference cost per collar: €112.25)
- Solar panel?: ~€3000 (Not TAMS funded)
A solar panel may be required for the health monitoring part of the system as Ken has some fields away from the yard that would not be accessible from a single mast in the yard due to forestry and trees. The total gross cost would be €16,500 including the solar panel, or €13,500 without.
Regardless of the solar panel, the TAMS grant available would be €7087.80 (60% of the reference costs above). This would leave Ken’s net cost at €6412.20 to €9412.20 (depending on the solar panel). He feels that this is certainly enough to justify his time spent on heat detection over the next 5-7 years. There is no annual cost and notifications are sent via an app and /or text message to a mobile phone.
Grassland
Ken was examining his farm summary report through Pasturebase for 2024. He measured grass 27 times during the year and grew an average of 6.782t DM/ha so far this year. The average pre-grazing yield was 1107 kg DM/ha and this was as low as 1068 kg DM/ha in spring.
Grazing started on 22nd February and magic day (when grass growth meets or exceeds demand) was not reached on the farm until 9th May with the cold, wet spring.
The annual tonnage report on Pasturebase provides a breakdown of the grass grown on each paddock for the year, with yellow representing the yield for silage and green representing the yield from grazing. This allows Ken to identify his poorer performing paddocks and can help him select any for reseeding next year. The paddock yields ranged from 2.55 t DM/ha up to 12.83 t DM/ha.
Figure 3: Annual tonnage report for 2024
Kens closing cover on 8th November shows a farm cover of 253 kg DM/ha. The autumn born calves will continue to graze over the winter for a few hours per day and Ken’s stocking rate will be lower in spring so this takes pressure off of grass in spring.
Figure 4: Grass wedge on 8th November 2024
Performance
Ken weighed cattle on 30th October. The spring 2024 bullocks (3) from the rogue bull averaged 219kg and gained 0.86kg/day since 1st July. The spring 2024 heifers (2) averaged 227kg and gained 0.85kg/day during the same time.
The autumn 2023 heifers (25) averaged 390kg and gained 0.69kg/day since 1st July. The autumn 2023 bullocks (42) averaged 397kg and gained 0.66kg/day since 1st July. They were weighed as they were moving onto the turnips, rape and kale crop and will be weighed again when they come off of it. The heifers were slightly ahead of the 2022 born heifers at the time of weighing at 0.01 kg/head/day since birth and the bullocks were slightly behind the 2022 bullocks by 0.05kg/head/day since birth.
Figure 5: Store cattle grazing the forage crop