Shane Keaveney September/October Update 2024
Scanning results
- Pregnancy rate to sexed semen was 64% for first serve
- 8/11 cows in calf to AI
- All cows in calf to Charolais bull
Winter feeding plans
- Feeding rates for winter
- Red clover silage sample results
- Fodder budget is on target for the winter
Weights & finishing results
- Latest cattle sales
- Bulls weighed after housing
- First batch of dairy beef heifers finished
Breeding
This year Shane AI’d 10 cows to sexed female straws from Leeherd Lynx (SI7491) and the repeats were bred to conventional straws from Powerful Proper. 7 of the cows are in calf to Leeherd Lynx who has good figures for daughter milk (+9.1kg), carcass weight (+19.2kg) and daughter calving interval (-1.48 days) and age at finish (-3.84 days) but is only 2 stars on the maternal index. The cow live weight figure and susceptibility to TB are the two traits that are bringing down his overall replacement index. However, this resulted in a 64% pregnancy rate to first serve of sexed semen. One other cow is in calf to a conventional straw from Powerful Proper (LM7416). He is €135 on the replacement index with excellent maternal traits such as +5.4kg daughter milk and +24.4kg carcass weight.
All of the remaining cows that were bred to the Charolais bull are in calf, but only 1 out of 5 maiden heifers that were AI’d are in calf.
Figure 1: Cows are now housed for the winter
Animal Nutrition
The finishing heifers are eating 5kg /head/day of a 13% crude protein ration. They were getting 2.5kg/head/day for the first month at grass.
The suckler bred heifers and dairy beef calves are eating 1kg of ration/head/day.
Figure 2: Some of the suckler bred heifers
The suckler bulls will be finished under 16 months of age. Their dungs were quite loose after housing on 12th October, but they have since settled down. They are eating 3kg of a 16% crude protein ration which is costing €370/t. A 13% crude protein ration is cheaper at €330/t so Shane tested his silage to see if he could reduce the crude protein percent in the ration being fed to the bulls.
The red clover silage was tested and is 71.25% DMD and 13.56% crude protein at 30.78% dry matter which is good. This means that the bulls can be fed 5kg of a 14% ration/head/day along with the red clover which will reduce Shane’s feed costs. The weanling heifers can also be fed 1.5kg of a 14% ration. Further bales will be tested as Shane starts feeding them out.
Figure 3: Red clover silage sample results
Shane completed a fodder budget for this winter. He will have 34 cows and 1 stock bull and would like to have 6 months feed available for them. He also has 53 weanlings for what he expects will be less than 5 months and 5 store heifers are being finished on 5kg ration/head/day that he expects to be sold in the coming 2 months. According to Pasturebase, he will need 105t of silage when ration is accounted for, and he has 96t available from 400 bales of silage which means that he has approximately 6 months feed available in the yard. Shane also plans to sell a further 5 heifers which will reduce his feed demand further.
Performance
The bulls (23) were weighed on 16th October and averaged 315kg, after gaining 0.96 kg/day since 3rd August. They ranged from 265kg to 391kg. Shane plans to weigh them monthly to monitor performance.
Figure 4: Growing bulls are housed since 12th October
Ten heifers were sold in September from the farm – 5 went to the mart and 5 were private sales. The 5 heifers sold in the mart averaged 395kg. Shane noticed that the heifers were 50kg lighter than previous years, and his target is to have them at 500kg to sell at €3/kg.
Five of the first batch of dairy beef heifers were finished on 31st October. They averaged 271kg carcass weight and graded O+4- on average at 19.8 months of age. Shane weighed them before they were sold and they averaged a 49% kill out percentage.
Figure 5: Some heifers from the first batch of dairy beef finishers sold