Future Beef Update: Breeding, feeding and harvesting red clover
Aisling Molloy, Future Beef Programme Advisor, fills us in on the latest happenings from James Skehan’s farm in Co. Clare, where the focus has centred ending the breeding season, harvesting red clover silage and animal nutrition.
Breeding
20 cows and 6 heifers were bred in total this spring. James used a synchronisation programme for breeding the heifers and some cows.
He had tail painted the heifers and watched for repeats but did not see any. They were all served on June 4 with SA4604 (Knottown Roy). James decided to scan them 38 days later on July 12 for peace of mind and was delighted to find that they are all in calf! Typical expected conception rates for heifers through a synchronisation programme are 70% so James is delighted with 100%. The heifers were kept on a level plane of nutrition at grass and had been given a mineral bolus pre-breeding. They were also vaccinated against leptospirosis. The heifers were kept in a group on their own so that James could handle them easily and averaged 402kg on 22 May. He had originally planned to breed them in April, but they only weighed 358kg on average on April 16. They gained an average of 1.22kg/day over that month which helped them to achieve their target breeding weights.
Figure 1: Two of the in-calf heifers
The bull was removed from the cows on July 31, which allowed for a 13 week breeding season and he has joined the bullocks on the out farm. The cows will be scanned at the end of August or early September to determine if they are in calf or not. James will know from the dates if they are in calf to AI or the stock bull. Any cows not in calf will be sold.
Unfortunately one cow had to be sent to the factory due to a twisted gut that could not be treated so now there are 19 cows to scan instead of 20.
Clover
James cut the red clover silage for the second time at 5cm off the ground. He rowed it up straight away after cutting to minimise any leaf shatter and baled in on July 14. It yielded 29 bales in total (average of 4.6 bales/acre).
Pre-cutting, James noticed that the crop wasn’t as green as expected and after walking it discovered that the clover hadn’t grown as well as expected. He thinks this may have been down to the heavy first cut and not enough light reaching the clover for it to grow.
Figure 2: Red clover silage crop pre-cutting
The crop was given 3,000 gallons of slurry/acre to replace the nutrient offtakes, which was spread using the dribble bar. He also spread 1 bag of muriate of potash/acre on it. For every five tonnes of dry matter (8 bales/acre) removed, 12 units of P and 100 units of K per acre are required.
James plans to take a third cut from it in early September. He also has the option to mulch the crop for the fourth cut to help light into the sward over winter if needs be, and this would also help to keep nutrients from the crop.
Nutrition
James is finishing three heifers at grass. They were born in 2022 and they averaged 500kg on June 10. A fourth heifer was meant to be finished with the group but, after weighing her in June, James discovered she was only 426kg and was not on track to finish with her comrades. As she would have been turning 30 months in early August, James decided to sell her live instead of feeding her on. She made €1,170 at 425kg live weight (€2.75/kg).
The oldest heifer remaining will turn 30 months in early September so James is planning to have her finished by then, allowing for approx. 60 days feeding from June 1. They were built up gradually on ration to 4kg twice daily on June 10. This was increased to 5kg on July 5 and rose to 6kg in early August. As there are only 3 of them, it is trickier to manage grass with them so James is keeping them on after grass and they are grazing in front of the store cattle where possible.
Visually, they look quite healthy and none of them are coughing. They were treated with an oral levamisole dose on March 7 against fluke and were given an albendazole dose in late July to treat them for lungworm. The dose only has a 14 day withdrawal period for meat so it won’t interfere with their finishing dates.
Figure 3: Finishing heifers at grass
The store cattle will be weighed this month and the most forward ones (>550kg) will be picked for finishing before Christmas. James will decide whether to feed them at grass or house them in early September for finishing based on weather conditions at the time.
A new creep feeder was purchased this year and James has it in with the cows and calves since early August. He expects that this will help to minimise any setbacks to calves at weaning and means he will have the option to wean them early if needs be.
Figure 4: The creep feeder is out with the calves
For more insights from the Future Beef Programme, click here.