Shane Keaveney September/October 2023
Grassland
- The red clover is cut for the second in the first week of September and
- For the third time in early October
- Challenging ground conditions in October
Performance
- Gradual weaning of the 2023 born calves
- Preparation for sale – store heifers are getting 2 kgs of meal
- Shane houses the bull weanlings in October
Grassland
Shane took a second cut of the red clover silage on September 1st - the weather was good and he managed to get a 2 day wilt which is ideal for red clover. The yield was 2.5 bales to the acre. The area was closed immediately and Shane managed to get a third cut in mid October. The yield was low as expected but cutting it cleaned off the field for the winter. If it was not cut Shane would have let cattle in to graze it so baling was an easier option.
Picture 1: Red clover silage September 1st
Picture 2: The red clover yielded 2.5 bales/acre
As a result of the continuous wet weather Shane housed half the cows in mid October. He managed to keep the other 15 out on grass on the outfarm in Ballinlough.
Picture 3: Waterlogged paddock in October
The bull weanlings were getting 3kgs/head/day of meal out on grass but Shane felt that this group would be better off housed. They were unsettled and feeding 3kgs of meal in wet conditions was not an easy task plus ground was getting damaged.
Performance
Shane started feeding the red clover silage to the bulls at housing plus 3 kgs of meal/head/day. He increased the meal to 5 kgs by the end of October. Weighing is necessary to monitor and track performance . The weanlings were weighed in August and again in October.
On October 6th the bulls weighed 334 kgs ie 1.26kgs average daily gain since birth. Between the first weighing in August to October they gained 1.03kgs/day. Shane is happy with this performance as grass was very wet and conditions were not ideal.
He will weigh again in November to monitor performance indoors on the red clover silage. He also weighed the heifers;
The 21 heifers were weighed on October 28th and there average weight was 282kgs which is 1kg daily gain since birth. They only gained 0.54kgs since the weighing in August but they were weaned and getting just 1kg of meal during this period. Again, Shane felt that the grass was too wet and it affected daily weigh gains.
Shane is feeding 2kg of meal to forward store heifers- he is hoping to have them sold by the end of September.
Animal Nutrition
Shane was looking forward to getting the red clover silage sampled;
While the results were excellent , Shane would like the dry matter to be higher ie the silage is wet. The crop got a shower of rain after cutting and also it was the first cut of the red clover. The bulls are very content eating it and Shane is offering some straw to balance the wet silage. Overall, the DMD at 74.47% and Crude Protein at 17.32% is excellent. Shane is feeding the silage every 2 days so that it is eaten quickly.
Shane is confident that the second cut will be a lot drier. He will also weigh the bulls monthly to ensure that they are on target.