Olivia Hynes July/August 2024
Grassland
- Some heavy covers of grass to deal with in early August
- Another 15 acres cut for silage
- Building covers for the Autumn
Grassland
Grass growth increased significantly at the beginning of August with a peak growth rate of 49kgs/DM/ha/day. With demand at 30kgs/DM/ha /day the days ahead went from 25 days to 31 days. Olivia wants to grow plenty of good quality grass as the rams will be let out to the 240 ewes in the first week of September. A good plain of nutrition is required for this priority group.
Photo; The is 29 days of grass ahead
Some covers are gone to heavy to graze at home in Jamestown . Olivia will take them out as surplus bales immediately as she wants the paddocks back in rotation for September and October.
Photo: The is 29 days of grass ahead
Some covers are gone to heavy to graze at home in Jamestown . Olivia will take them out as surplus bales immediately as she wants the paddocks back in rotation for September and October.
Photo: August 14th - too heavy for grazing
Photo: Olivia will remove the heavy covers as bales
Performance
Olivia is happy with the weights of this years calves given the poor weather over the summer. The bulls are gaining 1.19kgs/day and they have an average weight of 285kgs. Some of the later born calves are reducing the average weight. The heifers are performing very well at 267kgs at 200days. The target is 250kgs .
The calves will be weaned in early September but she will start introducing meal at the end of August. Olivia targets the export market for her top weanlings so they need to be eating 1.5-2kg of meal before sale day.
Photo: The 2024 born weanlings are gaining 1.16kgs/day on average
Photo: 14th August 2024
The weaning performance report also highlights how each individual cow is performing in relation to rearing her calf. The suckler cow should rear a calf that is at least 42% of her own birth weight. On average Olivia’s cow are rearing calves that are 44 % of their weigh which means that they are doing a good job.
Photo: A functional milky cow crossed with the right bull delivers consistently!
Breeding
Olivia scanned a selection of 24 cows and 21 cows are in calf which is 88 %. This year, Olivia did not use a mop up bull and continued with AI for an extra three weeks. Olivia is hoping the remainder of the scanning will give a similar result.
Photo: Initial scanning gives good results at 88% in calf to AI.
Biodiversity
Photo: Keeping the grass off the new hedge by hand!
14th August : The new hedge is growing very well.