Ruairi Cummins January Update
Preventing health setbacks in bulls for finishing under 16 months
- Vaccinate against respiratory disease
- Monitor performance to identify any issues
- Ensure dosing product is given at the right time after housing
Monitoring weight gains of heifers
- Vaccinate against respiratory disease
- Monitor performance to identify any issues
- Ensure dosing product is given at the right time after housing
Tightening calving spread to 10 weeks simplifies workload
- Routine jobs such as dosing, castration, dehorning etc. can be done with a similar age group
- Less separation of cattle at housing as they are typically similar weights and age
- Allows planning with off-farm job
Animal Health
The weanling bulls for slaughtering under 16 months of age are a priority on Ruairi’s farm. They were weaned at the end of October and housed on the 26th of October. To prevent any outbreaks of respiratory illness, they were vaccinated at housing against RSV, Pi3, Mannhaemia Haemolytica and for IBR. It may be more beneficial to vaccinate them in advance of the stress period of housing and weaning going forward.
Ruairi dosed the bulls with a closantel pour-on on 10th of December which treated them for immature fluke (6-9 weeks), adult fluke (10-12 weeks), lungworms, stomach worms and lice. Faecal egg samples were taken this week to check for any potential resistance to the dosing ingredient, but all results came back clear which is great.
Shortly after housing, Ruairi thought that his bulls weren’t thriving as well as they should be, which was also reflected in their weights. He noticed some of them forcing and identified coccidiosis as the cause. They were treated for it and have since recovered well.
All cattle had their backs shaved and tails clipped at housing. They will be all treated for lice this week to prevent biting lice, sucking lice and mange.
Performance
Ruairi’s heifers (18) averaged 348kg, at an average daily weight gain of 0.67 kg/day on the 29th December.
Although the average daily gain since their previous weighing on 3rd December was ahead of the target of 0.6 kg/day, this ranged from 0.06 kg/day to 1.17 kg/day. Based on this, the underperforming stock were examined and did not stand out as being the lightest, sick, scouring or coughing.
The pen could be divided to separate the lighter, younger and/or underperforming heifers from the others. Regular weighing of stock at housing can help Ruairi to adjust management practices on his farm and ensure that stock are performing at their optimum, particularly over winter when feed costs are at their highest for the year.
Breeding
Set breeding dates are in place on the farm to simplify Ruairi’s workload. In 2021 he let his Charolais bulls out with his cows and heifers on 10th of April and removed them on 18th of June, which is approximately 10 weeks. Routine jobs such as dosing, castration, dehorning etc. are easier to do when calves are a similar age, instead of having different batches of cattle.
Over winter, it is a lot simpler to pen cattle as they are similar weights and age, which reduces the need for taking up unnecessary space. It also means that cattle are less likely to be bullied away from the feed barrier.
In Ruairi’s case, it allows him to plan around his off-farm job as he knows the timeframe to expect his calves, instead of calving for months at a time. It also allows him to scan earlier and make a plan for animals that are not in calf so they are not costing extra money by being fed and housed over the winter.