25 October 2023
Animal performance, red clover silage and finishing with DairyBeef 500 farmer Aidan Maguire
Like the rest of the country, ground conditions have deteriorated rapidly since the middle of October on Aidan Maguire’s farm in Navan, Co. Meath. In this article, Fergal Maguire, DairyBeef 500 Advisor to the farm, provides an update on grassland management, animal performance and silage quality.
Aidan has decided to house all his older cattle in order for his weanlings to remain outside. Early housing of cattle has been a frequent occurrence on this farm all year, due to poor weather conditions or slow grass growth.
Since the first of July, Aidan has finished 50 steers. The average age of slaughter was 20.9 months, but the carcass weight is a good bit lighter than he would have liked at 267kg. Ideally, if grazing conditions during the summer were good, Aidan would have allowed these cattle go into bigger animals off grass before a short finishing period.
At the moment, there are 15 cattle on a finishing diet of 5kg of meal and red clover silage. The cattle that were housed in the last week are still on the light side for a finishing diet. For the next month, they will only receive good quality silage before receiving concentrates. Three weeks after housing they will receive a fluke and a worm dose.
Silage quality and red clover performance
Results from the silage analysis have come back. Quality ranged between 72 DMD and 78 DMD, with the highest being from third cut red clover bales. Crude protein has ranged from 13.5% to 16.5%. The majority of the silage on the farm is now from red clover swards.
On average, these swards were cut four times with an average total yield of 28.5 bales/ac or just over 14t DM/ha with no chemical nitrogen input. The fourth cut of silage was taken in a dry spell in mid-October, the red clover swards also got a grazing in early spring.
Weanling performance and health
For the year that is in it, the spring-born calves are performing quite well. Since birth, their average daily gain has been over 0.7kg. However, they did receive 1kg of meal all year round due to grass being in tight supply. Initially, growth in the calves was restricted due to a bad outbreak of coccidiosis three weeks after turnout, but they have since bounced back well are now on target at an average weight of 210kg on the 1st of October.
Worm count is monitored through regular faecal sampling and calves are dosed when the egg count per gram goes over 200. They have been dosed three times so far this year and the dose used is alternated between the three classes of anthelmintics. The next dose will be a Levacide-based product.
Weanlings will be housed in mid-November if conditions allow and will be fed 1kg of meal, along good quality silage. Come the 1st of January, these animals will be taken of meal and hopefully will be out to grass in mid-February.
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