Trevor Boland January/February 2024
Performance
- Trevor tracks the winter performance of the autumn calves
- He weighs in January and again in February
- Bulls weanlings are on 1.5kgs of meal/day
- The calves are weaned at the end of February
- Trevor purchases 40 yearling heifers
Grassland
- The weaned calves are grazing off silage ground and out full-time towards the end of February
- The slatted tanks are lowered slightly by applying some slurry
- The main application of slurry will be saved until better growing conditions in March.
Performance
Both the bull and heifers weanlings born in autumn were weighed on the 27th of January and the 19th of February 2024.
The bulls are progressing well with and average daily gain of 1.21kgs since birth. They are on 1.5kgs of meal and have access to adjacent grazing ground. Trevor also offers them good quality silage.
The weighing in January highlights a daily gain of 1.58kgs per day since their previous weighing in December and the bulls gained 1.24kgs from January to February . At this stage the cow ‘ s supply of milk is decreasing. Once the calves are between 280-300kgs they are better off weaned and the cow has their job done.
As a result he weaned the calves at the of February and they went full-time on grass . Trevor has kept them on the 1.5kgs of meal/head/day.
The heifers are performing well also averaging 250kgs on February 19th . They gained 1.3kgs per day from December to the end of January and 1.08kgs from January to the 19th of February . Similar to the bulls they have access to grass through creep gates while the cows stay in the pens.
Having the weanlings weaned at the end of February means that they have priority access to grass. In the event of tight grass supplies and/or wet weather, the cows can are kept indoors. The weanling are light stock on ground in February and will do little damage to grassland.
There are a number of advantages to grazing in early spring. The big winner is that it is cheap weight gain off grass . The group is cleaning off any winter growth of grass off the silage ground . Leaving a “butt” of grass on silage ground can reduce the DMD of the silage crop. Slurry can easily be applied to this bare ground in March.
Picture: weanling heifer out on grass in February
To increase the output of the farm Trevor purchases yearling heifers in spring with the intention to finish off grass in late Autumn. These are normally angus x fr type heifers. Trevor has found that getting the whole group into sufficient carcase weights to be a challenge given their genetic make up.
This year he has changed direction by purchasing 20 heifers from the suckler herd . The target is to increase the carcase weights with a better kill-out % that will hopefully deliver more profit. He has also purchased 20 angus x FR.
Grassland
New soil samples have been taken and Trevor awaits the results. The slatted tanks were getting full in February so a couple of loads were spread to take the pressure off. Trevor wants to keep the slurry for the silage ground and it will be applied in mid March when the grass needs it most.
The weanlings are grazing the areas around the slatted shed . They have access to silage also in the slatted shed.
Ground conditions have not been suitable for spreading fertiliser but Trevor hopes to apply 20 units of Protected urea/acre over the grazing platform in March.