Shane Keaveney November/December Update 2024
Pre-calving management
- Feeding cows pre-calving
- Pre calving mineral spec
- Soya bean meal fed to boost colostrum quality
Dosing & heifers finished
- Growing bulls treated for rumen fluke & stomach worms
- Latest weights
- Last of 2023 dairy beef heifers finished
Breeding
Shane continues to monitor his cows over the winter period to ensure that they are in good body condition before calving. Any thin cows are usually separated, but the good weather in autumn meant that the cows were housed in good condition and they have carried this through in the shed. Shane has poor quality silage and good quality silage in the yard so these bales are alternately fed to the cows every 2-3 days.
Thankfully there is no issue with scours in newborn calves on the farm so Shane does not vaccinate the cows against rotavirus, coronavirus or e.coli before calving. However he places a great emphasis on hygiene at calving time and calving pens are always kept clean through the use of lime and straw. The newborn calves’ navels are also disinfected as soon as possible after birth.
The cows are fed a good quality pre-calving mineral 6 weeks before calving. Shane dusts this on top of the silage daily. Figure 1 below shows the recommended amount of minerals required per day by a pre calving cow on the left column, while the right hand side column shows the amount of minerals that Shane’s pre-calving mineral is supplying. It contains no Phosphorus which is unusual. It is providing lower levels of manganese, vitamin A and vitamin D3 than required, and is high in sodium. Shane has been using a similar mineral the last few years without any issues at calving so it terms of value for money he is happy to stay with it. The recommended feeding rate is 120g/head/day and it costs €20/bag which works out at 12c/head/day.
Figure 1: Pre calving mineral recommendations & what is being provided by Shane’s mineral
To help improve the quality of the cows’ colostrum, Shane also feeds 0.25kg of soyabean meal/head/day from the third week in January. The cows will also move onto a slightly higher DMD silage in January of 68-70% DMD from a <66% DMD silage.
Grassland
Shane has been analysing his farm summary report on Pasturebase for 2024. He measured grass 18 times during the year and grew an average of 6.701 t DM/ha so far this year. The average pre-grazing yield was 1801 kg DM/ha and this was as high as 2012 kg DM/ha in autumn.
The annual tonnage report on Pasturebase provides a breakdown of the grass grown on each paddock for the year, with yellow representing the yield for silage and green representing the yield from grazing. This allows Shane to identify his poorer performing paddocks and can help him select any for reseeding next year. The paddock yields ranged from 1.97 t DM/ha (reseeded field) up to 10.9 t DM/ha.
Figure 2: Annual tonnage report for 2024 (Source: PBI)
Performance
The 2024 spring born bulls (24) were weighed on 20th November. They averaged 343kg and gained 0.81kg/day on averaged since 16th October. Shane took FEC samples from them which showed a high positive result from rumen fluke and stomach worms. They were dosed with Rumenil to treat the rumen fluke and this was followed up with Animec 4 days later to treat the stomach worms. They have since recovered well and are more settled in themselves and Shane expects that their weight gains will be back up in the next weighing.
Figure 3: Spring born bulls eating silage
The 2024 spring born heifers (9) averaged 304kg and gained 0.69kg/day since 3rd August. They are currently eating 1.7kg of ration/head/day along with 71% DMD red clover silage.
The dairy beef heifers (19) averaged 228kg and gained 0.7kg/day on average from birth which Shane is very happy with.
The last of the 2023 born dairy beef heifers (5) were finished on 6th December. They averaged 238kg carcass weight (range from 191kg to 267kg) at 21.1 months of age and graded O=3= on average, making €1429/head. Shane weighed them before they left the farm and they averaged a kill out percentage of 49%, which was similar to their comrades.
Figure 4: The finishing heifers were weighed before sale