Shane Keaveney May/June 2023
Grassland
- A dry June suits this heavy farm
- Red clover silage goes in
- Silage for priority groups is made in May
- Silage allowed to bulk for the cows is made in June
- Watery slurry is applied to paddocks
Breeding
- 5 cows are synchronised and AI’d with sexed semen
- AI used on 6 replacement heifers
- Bull let out on April 27th to remaining 30
Grassland
Grass growth has remained steady for the May/June period. Poor ground conditions at the start of May were the concern – with heavy rain in the first week of May. Shane managed to keep all cows out and moved the group quicker to the next paddock. As a result, the paddocks were not grazed to 4cm.
The weather soon dried up in June and despite the long dry spell , grass growth remained ahead of demand . The dry weather suits a farm like Shane’s. Good ground conditions allowed Shane to get the paddocks grazed to 4cm .
The average farm cover has remained at 735kg/DM/ha which is ideal in a dry spell in June . There is also 22 days ahead and with the thunderstorms in mid June , growth will jump. Surplus bales will be made to control grass.
Shane watered down the slurry in June and applied 2000gals/acre to tightly , grazed paddocks during the dry spell with at trial and shoe tanker. This has helped to keep growth rates up.
Red Clover
Shane managed to get the red clover sowed in early May. Conditions were not ideal due to a very wet April and early May. Shane would have liked to have got in sowed 2-3 weeks earlier. The ground was sprayed off and power harrowed before sowing. The area got 12 ton of FYM plus 3 bags of 10.10.20/acre with the clover mix as seen below;
The lack of rain post sowing has affected emergence . Shane will also use a post-emergence spray after 6 weeks post sowing.
Picture 1: Red clover establishment June 2nd 
Picture 2: Top quality silage - mid May 85 bales made
The remaining silage ground was allowed to ‘Bulk’ until June 6th – This silage will be used for the cows pre-calving.
Performance
The bulls were weighed on May 25th and they average weight was 624kgs. This represents a ADG of 1.30 kgs since birth. Since the last weighing they are gaining 1.53kgs per day , on average. The target weight is 680-700kgs at slaughter.
The first 10 bulls were slaughtered in early June and the caracase weights and grades have improved since last year. The first 10 have averaged a carcase weight of 392kgs. 6 have graded U with 4 R’s and all had a fat class over 2 +.
Breeding
With confidence gained from using AI on the replacement heifers last year - Shane decided to pick his 5 best maternal cows and use sexed semen on them to source his replacements . A synchronised programme and fixed time AI was used in order to simplify the process. Shane picked 2 sexed semen bulls – the Simmental bull LYNX and the Saler bull Knottown Roy. Both are high value maternal bulls.
LYNX (Simmental)
Knottstown Roy (Saler)
Six replacements heifers were AI'd using conventional semen by the LM bull Proper.
The Ch stock bull went out with the remaining 30 cows on April 27th.
Picture 4: Heifer that calved at 2 years of age with a Lennox heifer calf