Shane Keaveny June update
Grassland
Grass growth has been below average for the first part of June at 38 kg/DM/ha per day. On the main grazing block there are 14 days ahead which is tight. Slurry has been applied to grazing areas using the trail and shoe which will help growth rates. No fertiliser has been applied since the end of April but 20 units / acre of Protected N will be applied now. 11 ha was closed in early June for second cut silage. There are 200 of baled silage made to date and another 150 is needed.
Breeding
The CH bull was let to the cows on the 28th April and the last observed mounting was on the 28th of May. The bull will be removed on July 15th.
There are 12 heifers kept for replacements. 10 straws on sexed semen was purchased (Lennox) and to date 7 have been inseminated once and two have repeated and were AI’d. The remaining 5 were slow to show heat so they have been synchronised and the Ai bull Knell was used. In aid observation, there is a Fr vasectomised bull with a chin ball and heat patches were put on the heifers also. A bull will not be used to mob up these heifers and scanning is booked for July 13th. Any heifer not in calf will be retained for slaughter or sold at the end of the year.
Performance
The bulls near slaughter are gaining 1.4 kgs LW/day while the younger bulls are gaining by 1.7kgs LW/day. They are currently eating 11kgs of meal plus straw per day. 2 more bulls were killed in early June (5 in total to date ) and the average carcase weight of the 2 was 365kgs. This is slightly back on 2021. They graded R+3- and U- 2- with an average price of €5.46/kg. This represented a kill out of 58%. Most of the bulls will be killed at the end of the month but there might be a few in early July. All will be slaughter before they reach 16months of age.