Trevor Boland March/April Update 2025
Lying & feeding space in sheds
- Feeding space calculated for new shed
- Lying space also calculated
- Recommended pen numbers for next winter
Spring management
- Soil temperature at 8.1oC
- Fertiliser and slurry applications
- Fields picked for reseeding
Animal Health
The suckler calves have been weaned. Trevor has been calculating the feeding and lying space allowance in his shed for the housing period. Some of the bought in heifers were later finishing in 2024 and had to be housed which reduced lying and feeding space for a time.
These measurements are calculated by multiplying the length by the width of the area and dividing it by the recommended lying space per animal. A standard pen in the newer shed is 5.02m deep by 4.8m wide, i.e. 24m2.
- Based on a lying space of 2.5m2 for finishing heifers, the pen can hold 9 cattle. However when they are being fed ration they require 0.625m/head of feeding space and the pens only have enough space for 7 cattle.
- Suckler cows require 3m2 of lying space so there is enough room for 8 cows. They are not fed ration over winter so only require 0.45m/head of feed space , meaning there is enough feed space for 10 cows. However lying space is the limiting factor so 8 cows is the maximum recommended per pen.
The feeding and lying space for groups of stock are included in the Figure below. Trevor can work off of these calculations for next winter and in the meantime has bought heavier heifers this year, with the aim of selling them earlier and reducing the need to house them if weather conditions allow.
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Figure 1: Recommended feeding and lying space for cattle
Grassland
The silage ground received 2000 gallons slurry/acre earlier in spring and will be topped up with a further 2000 gallons/acre this month. Trevor will top that up with protected urea + sulphur to ensure it receives at least 80 units of nitrogen/acre in total. If we estimate that the slurry is providing 9 units of nitrogen (N), 5 units of phosphorus (P) and 30 units of potassium (K) per 1000 gallons, that means it will receive 36 units of N, 20 units of P and 120 units of K/acre from slurry alone. That leaves 44 units of nitrogen to come from the protected urea blend. The silage crop will need 80 units of N, 16 units of P and 100 units of K to grow at index 3 so adding the extra nutrients will help Trevor to build the soil fertility in the silage fields.
Figure 2: Soil temperatures were 8.1oC on 19th March
The grazing ground will be spread with 2 bags of 18-6-12/acre as the first round before the end of March to help boost grass growth.
Figure 3: Weaned bull calves at grass
Trevor has also been looking at a reseeding plan for this year and has picked out 3 fields to complete. The autumn calving system means that he has an opportunity between now and calving to take out paddocks for reseeding during the main growing season. He also plans to run a grass harrow over the field beside the shed which the calves had access to over winter, and will stitch in some new grass seed there to repair the sward damage.
Performance
Thirty nine heifers have been bought into the farm so far this year. While they are costing more than last year (€1109/head vs. €856/head), they are also heavier so that Trevor can finish them off of grass quicker (328kg vs ~303kg) so in reality they are only costing an extra €0.55/kg in comparison to 2024 which he is delighted with. They have settled in well and are grazing the block of land across the road from the home farm.
Only 5 of the bought in heifers have no CBV (commercial beef value) figure as sires were not recorded for them. The dairy beef heifers (20) have a CBV of €102 which is 4 stars for their category. The breakdown is as follows:
- 4 stars within breed
- 3 stars across breeds
- €3 carbon sub index
- 19 carcass weight
- 3 carcass conformation
- -4 days age at finish
- 04 feed intake
- 1 docility
In comparison, the suckler beef heifers are €215 on the CBV which is 2 stars within breed and 4 stars across breeds. Their breakdown is as follows:
- -€2.67 carbon sub index
- 6kg carcass weight
- 1 carcass conformation
- -5 days on age at finish
- -0.02 on feed intake
- 04 docility
The desirable figures are to have a high star rating, carcass weight, carcass conformation and docility for the best performance. This is combined with a negative age at finish and feed intake.
Figure 4: Some of the bought-in heifers
Trevor sold 3 cows to the mart on 15th March that were picked for culling on the basis of poor calf performance and weren’t bred in the autumn.