Management and Performance Update with Ger McSweeney
Ger McSweeney provides an update on the management and performance of livestock on farm, focusing primarily on the weaning and nutrition of spring-born bulls and heifers.
Fifteen spring-born bulls were recently weaned on the farm. The calves were vaccinated with Bovilis Bovipast, which protects against pneumonia strains - PI3 and RSP. They received their primary shot followed by a booster four weeks later. The calves achieved full immunity two weeks after receiving the booster vaccine. Ger began weaning the calves once they had reached full immunity from the vaccination protocol. Nose paddles for weaning were used, and Ger found them to be very successful. The paddles were placed on the bull calves while they remained with their dams. The bull calves were removed from the herd a few days later, and the paddles were removed again. These bulls have now been housed on the farm. The bulls were last weighed on the 20th of September, with an average weight of 329 kilograms, showing a live weight gain (LWG) of 1.21 kg per day since birth.
Heifers currently have nose paddles on while still grazing outdoors in their last rotation. They will be separated from their dams in the coming days and housed on a straw bed for the winter months. The heifers were also weighed on the 20th of September, with an average weight of 296 kilograms, showing an LWG of 1.16 kg per day since birth.
Ger commented that weaning cows outdoors has many health benefits, including fewer cases of mastitis compared to weaning indoors. He will continue to use nose paddles for weaning in the future. He found that the weanlings were less stressed during weaning due to the nose paddles, and they were fed meal both before and after weaning in line with the national beef welfare scheme.
Spring-born bulls recently housed, consuming 2 kg of meal and silage.
Nutrition
Ger has completed a fodder budget and estimates that he will have sufficient fodder to get through the winter months. Autumn grazing has gone according to plan, and Ger has managed to keep grass in the diet, which has helped reduce the winter fodder demand. Seventy percent of the farm is now closed for the winter. The plan is to keep the remaining stock at grass until the end of October. This includes heifer calves and dry cows. Some cull cows are also grazing on a separate block and will be housed shortly. The plan is to introduce meal to these cull cows and finish them off the farm over the winter.
Very little silage has been fed to date, except for when the bull calves and dry cows were housed. The dry cows are on silage only, and Ger is very happy with their body condition. Cows will be regularly assessed for body condition, and any cows that are becoming too thin or too fat will be managed accordingly before calving next spring.
The bulls are currently being fed 2 kg per head per day of a 16% protein concentrate, along with silage. Their intake will be increased to 4 kg per day over the coming weeks, after which they will be switched to a finishing meal in early January. The goal is to have these bulls finished and off the farm before they reach 16 months of age. Silage is due to be tested, and the best quality silage will be fed to the finishing cattle. Bulls will be weighed regularly to assess performance over the winter months.
So far this year, the bulls have only been dosed once. They have been fecal sampled several times, and the results indicated that no further dosing was required. Once housed, all animals will undergo fecal egg testing and be dosed according to the results. Ger has followed this policy over the last few years and now only doses animals based on fecal egg test results.
Dry cows recently housed, dams of the 2024 bulls.
Performance
In the first week of October, the last remaining 2023-born heifers were finished off the farm. They killed out at an average carcass weight of 346 kilograms and were 20.4 months old at the time of finishing. There were four U-grade heifers and five R-grade heifers.
Additionally, four cull cows were finished in the first week of October, with an average carcass weight of 379 kilograms.
This year, there were more bulls than heifers born on the farm. This presents an opportunity to introduce additional replacements into the herd in 2025. Ger is considering culling older cows and replacing them with high-quality breeding heifers, as he will have a surplus of heifers for breeding in 2025.
There was also an outbreak of coccidiosis on the farm, which affected the performance of some of the 2024-born calves and some of the 1½-year-old heifers. This issue has since been resolved, and Ger noted that cattle liveweight for the time of year is now back to expected levels. With good quality silage and concentrates fed to the bulls, Ger is confident that they will compensate in liveweight and should reach their target weight when finished. Coccidiosis had never been an issue on the farm before, so Ger is looking at options to prevent this problem next year.