Michael McGuigan November/December 2023
Performance
- Weighing highlights some issues on the farm
- Calving started in October and 20 cows have calved in 10 weeks
Grassland
- A review of 2023 – great results in a difficult year
- Closing cover of 581kgsDM/ha is achieved
Performance
It is good practice to weigh on a regular basis to monitor animal performance. Michael weighed on the 2nd of November. It highlighted a concern as the 19 young bullocks did not gain any weight since their previous weighing. The weights remained stagnated. Michael put this down to the very wet weather and the fact that the group were grazing very wet grass which had limited feed value. While they were doing a job grazing off covers , their performance was impacted negatively. Also he notcid that they were unsettled and spent a lot of time looking for shelter. As a result, Michael increased meal and in December , the group moved onto forage rape.
Michael weighed again in early December and to his relief , they recovered and gained 0.89kg/day on average. On the 2nd of December their average weight was 411kgs. This represents an average daily gain of 0.93 since birth- a little below target.
It was a similar story with the heifers , with a dip in performance in October. Like the bullocks , they have recovered and gained 0.79kgs/head/day from the 2nd of November to the 2nd of December. Their average weight was 387kgs on that date . This equates to 0.88kgs/day since birth which is below the target of 1kgs/day. Michael moved onto the forage rape in December also and increased the meal.
Calving started on the 12th of October and currently there are 20 cows calved with 19 live calves. 1 cow calved a dead calf before her time. Otherwise, the cows are calving unassisted.
Picture 1: Freshly calved cow and the pens are well bedded with straw
Grassland
On pasturebase Ireland a summary of 2023 can be generated which give valuable information on the grassland performance and more importantly how it was managed for 2023.
The first part shows the Michael walked the farm and entered 39 covers into pasturebase which is excellent. The farm yielded 12.5 tons DM/ha of grass which again is very good particularly in a wet year. The average growth rate was 47kgs/DM/ha which is ahead of the average demand of 37kgs/DM/ha.
The report also shows what type of covers that the cattle grazed – the target is 1400kgs/DM/ha and Michael grazed covers on average of 1316kgs/DM/ha ie good , leafy swards.
The second half of the report shows that 110 kgs/ha of chemical N was used to grow the 12.5tons of grass. This is equivalent to 88units/N/ha. It also showed that Michael achieved 317 days at grass which is excellent given the wet year.
Michael has now closed up for the winter and has left an average farm cover of 581kgs. He has prioritised grazing off the clover swards last to ensure that light can penetrate all winter.
