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Olivia Hynes November/December Update 2024

Feeding plans

Feeding plans

  • Silage samples taken
  • Result of one batch of bales
  • Growing bulls will be built up to 4kg ration/head/day
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Sales & weights

Sales & weights

  • Latest weights
  • Weanlings and cows sold live
  • One cow & bull sold to factory
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Liming plans

Liming plans

  • Reviewing 2024 soil samples
  • Planning for spreading lime
  • 142t required in total
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Animal Nutrition

Silage samples were taken on the farm through the BeefQuest project which Olivia is participating in.

One sample was taken from bales on the home farm which showed that they were 69.3% DMD with 13.2% crude protein at 37.98% dry matter. However Olivia expects that a different batch are better quality and will take another sample from them.

Silage sample results

Figure 1: Silage sample results from bales on home farm

Olivia plans to finish some of her bulls under 16 months of age next year. Some of them aren’t weaned yet so she will be carrying that out this week. They have been eating around 2kg of ration along with the other weanlings that are to be sold, but with the vasectomised bull and cull cow now sold, it frees up a pen to house them separately. They will now be built up by 0.5kg/head every 3 days to 4kg ration/head/day.

The silage pit is now open in Kilcash.


Performance

Olivia weighed 16 of the 2024 born heifers on 11th November. They averaged 300kg and had gained 0.8 kg/head/day on average since 23rd August and averaged 1.04 kg/day since birth.

Weanlings eating silage

Figure 2: Some of the weanling heifers that are now housed

The two recently purchased heifers averaged 213kg on the same day, which was similar to the dairy beef heifers that averaged 219kg. They had gained 0.71 kg/day since 23rd August.

Ten of the 2024 born bulls were also weighed on 11th November and they averaged 291kg, after gaining 0.96kg/day since 23rd August and 1kg/head/day since birth.

The 4 dairy beef males averaged 290kg and gained 0.95kg/head/day since 23rd August.

Three bulls and 2 heifers were sold live on 12th November. The heifers averaged 303kg and the bulls averaged 350kg. The bulls averaged €3.45/head.  A further 2 cows were sold on 22nd November. One cow weighed 645kg and made €1430.

One cow and the vasectomised bull were sold to the factory on 4th December.

Cattle sold to factory

Figure 3: The bull and cull cow that were sold to the factory


Soil Fertility

Olivia has been reviewing her liming plan for 2024. She still has lime to spread based on this year’s soil samples and plans to order it so that it can be spread if ground conditions are dry so that it won’t affect cutting silage or spreading slurry next year. It is recommended that slurry isn’t spread for 3-6 months after spreading lime, and that silage isn’t cut for 3-6 months after spreading as it can affect the preservation. This year’s samples show that 142 tonnes of lime is required in total.

Lime required in fields on the farm

Figure 4: Fields on the home block where lime is needed