Clonakilty Agricultural College Drystock Unit Farm Update - Spring 2022

David Hallisey, College Lecturer at Clonakilty Agricultural College gives an update from the Drystock unit for Spring 2022. David covers the suckler, sheep and calf-to-beef enterprises in the unit and also provides a grass update.

Sucklers

Suckler cows began calving on the 20th February and finished calving on the 8th April - giving a 7 week calving spread. Due to poor weather conditions in March, cows and calves weren't turned out to grass until March 18th. This year on the suckler herd there's 15 cows for breeding along with 10 maiden heifers. 6 cows were identified for culling for various reasons such as age, breeding and past performance. Breeding will begin on the 10th of May and will run for 8 and a half weeks this year, finishing up on the 8th July. As part of the pre-breeding programme, a vasectomised bull was introduced on the 28th of April and all cows were also tail painted. Any cows not showing signs of heat after three weeks will be scanned. All heifers will be served through a fix timed AI protocol beginning on the 4th of May and will be served on the 12th of May.

Sheep

Lambing began on the 17th of February with 90% of ewes lambing on the first 7 days. Lambing finished up on the 17th March. Due to poor weather weather conditions, ewes and lambs were kept in a paddock beside the shed for the first two weeks before being moved across the road to grass. Lambs were weighed on the 5th of May and averaged 25.5kgs giving an average liveweight gain per week of 2kgs since birth. All lambs were treated for Nematodirus and were given a pour-on drench for external parasites on May 5th.

Yearlings

All yearlings were weighed before going back out to grass and averaged 0.5kgs liveweight gain since their last weighing in December 2021. Heifers averages 304kgs and bullocks averaged 355kgs at turnout. Yearlings were put to grass on the 15th of March later than they would have liked but weather conditions did not facilitate an earlier release date.

Calf-to-Beef

This year as part of the calf-to-beef enterprise, 31 calves were kept from the dairy herd, mainly comprising of Hereford and Angus calves. 15 heifers were kept along with 16 bulls. The plan is to get the calves out to grass in the coming weeks once they're weaned off milk.

Grass

The latest grass walk was carried out on the 9th May. The current grass situation on the drystock unit is - growth of 94kgs DM/Ha, demand of 69kg DM/Ha, average farm cover of 1,292Kgs DM/Ha with 19 days ahead and currently stocked at 5.2 LU/Ha. Stocking rate is quite high at the moment as 12.5Ha of ground is closed up for first cut silage plus another 1Ha paddock has been sprayed off for reseeding and will be going in as a multispecies sward in the coming days. With average farm cover high at 1,292Kgs DM/Ha, some paddocks will also be cut out as surplus bales in the coming days.

Find out more about the farms at Clonakilty Agricultural College here