Olivia Hynes March/April Update 2025
Recent webinar
- Olivia was on the Future Beef breeding webinar
- She discussed calving at 2 years, vasectomised bulls and vaccinations
- Link to watch it back
Importance of lepto vaccines
- Pre-breeding vaccinations
- Lepto vaccines given to heifers and cows
- Last year’s outbreak was caused by bought in heifers
Sustainability report analysis
- Bord Bia inspection completed
- Carbon footprint for 2024
- Reduction in footprint from 2023
Media
Olivia featured on the Future Beef breeding webinar on 18th March 2025 alongside panellists Dr. Colin Byrne, Nutribio and Veterinary surgeon Donal Lynch of Slieve Bloom Veterinary. You can watch it back here:
Animal Health
As discussed in the recent Future Beef webinar, after an outbreaklast year led to herd infertility due to bought-in heifers, Olivia implemented a Leptospirosis vaccination program:
- First vaccine: 4–6 weeks before the booster e.g. Feb 14 – Valentine’s Day
- Booster shot: March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
The final vaccine/booster must be given least 2 weeks before breeding which Olivia has completed well in advance.
Figure 1: A HEX cow with BBX calf from BB9854 that has been vaccinated against lepto
Greenhouse Gases
Olivia recently had her Bord Bia SBLAS inspection and completed her sustainability survey. This shows her carbon footprint for 2024. It was 12.13 kg CO2 / kg beef live weight, which was a 17% reduction on the previous year.
The report shows that the cattle numbers were back by 11%, but that live weight gain was up by 3%. The beef produced per livestock unit increased by 17% to 306 kg/LU. The volume of ration significantly fell by 24% per livestock unit also. The number of days at grass increased and and the amount of nitrogen spread/ha stayed similar to 2023 at 81 kg N/ha. 50% of the fertiliser that Olivia spread was in a protected urea form, compared with 32% the previous year. The remaining 50% was spread in a CAN compound in the form of 18-6-12.
Figure 2: Carbon footprint and emissions details for Olivia’s farm in 2024
The report shows that 69% of Olivia’s emissions are coming from animal digestion, i.e. methane. This was less in 2024 due to lower stock numbers and increased production per animal. The manure fraction decreased by 1%, while the total fertiliser use increased by 2%. Emissions from forage/feed production decreased and the ‘other’ category increased by 1%.